Hugh Lassen was born in 1976 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He learned to carve after seeing a small Native American spear weight carving (also called a “Bird Stone”) in a museum. This surprising event lead him to study sculpture at the Art Students League of New York and drawing at the Spring Studio, NY. Often an idea will emerge from a drawing and will provide the beginning for a sculpture. By carving directly in the stone or wood the idea will be refined until, hopefully, it works in the round. He lives with his wife and two children in Cherryfield, Maine.
Artist's Statement
I find that my own sculptural aims revolve around mass, bulk, weight, in a phrase, ponderable form. For many years I've studied the figure using a range of exercises to develop my sense of touch. From these efforts and from my experiences carving, I realize that, despite being an abstract sculptor, my work is founded on human and animal forms.
The subtle, quiet forces that inspire us are perhaps better left unstated but broadly, my aim is to create vital, life-enhancing forms.
Exhibitions
2022 • SCULPTURE NOW at the Mount, Lenox, MA
• City of Lewiston, ME, Public Art Commission Arboreal Figure Granite
2021 • City of Auburn, ME, Public Art Commission Bud Form Granite
2020 • Littlefield Gallery, Winter Harbor, ME
2019 • Spirit of Place at The Crane Estate, Ipswich, MA, New England Sculptors Association Juried Show
2018 • Lori Tremblay and Hugh Lassen - Littlefield Gallery, Winter Harbor, ME
2017 • Carved Stone: Maine Artists - Lord Hall Gallery, The University of Maine, Orono View Catalogue
2016 • Terry Hilt and Hugh Lassen - Energy and Form: The creation of Acadia - Littlefield Gallery, Winter Harbor, ME
2015 • Four Master Sculptors Choose Granite - Turtle Gallery, Deer Isle, ME
• Group Show - Littlefield Gallery, Winter Harbor, ME
2014 • Sculptural Maquettes/ Small Carvings - Turtle Gallery, Deer Isle, ME
• Alec Richardson and Hugh Lassen - The Essence of Maine - Littlefield Gallery, Winter Harbor, ME
• Art Meets Science 2014: Imagining the Possibilities, MDI Biological Lab, Mt. Desert Island, ME
• Art in Public Spaces Maine Mt. Desert Island, ME
2013 • Hugh Lassen – Carvings and Drawings Generation Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
• Group Show – The Turtle Gallery, Deer Isle, ME
• Art in Public Spaces Maine NE Harbor Library, Mt. Desert Island, ME
• Sculpture and Nature Viles Arboretum, Augusta, ME
2012 • Hugh Lassen - Sculpture For Gardens The Turtle Gallery, Deer Isle, ME
• Group Show – The Schooner Gallery, Milbridge, ME
• Group Show – Tunk Mountain Arts, Cherryfield, ME
2005 • Art Students League Merit Scholarship Show, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, NY
2003-2005 Group Shows The Art Students League, NY
Education
Brown University B. A. Degree 1998
Rhode Island School of Design classes in Sculpture while at Brown University
The Sculpture Center, The New School, NY (Taught by Sculptor Francisco Rivera) 2001-03
The Art Students League of NY (Taught by Sculptor Garry Sussman) 2003-05
Spring Studio Life Drawing Monitor 2001 - 2005
An Approach to Form
To me weight is the essence of form. And, since the life of a thing is its only real significance, I think of form as the living expression of weight. - Kimon Nicolaides
Form, though it can be analyzed into intellectual terms like measure, balance, rhythm and harmony, is really intuitive in origin; it is not an intellectual product. It is rather emotion directed and defined, and when we describe art as "the will to form" we are not imagining an exclusively intellectual activity, but rather an exclusively instinctive one. - Herbert Read
I aspire to ripeness of form. - Henri Laurens