Melissa Young

Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington

Melissa Young has been sculpting since 1993, after completing an Industrial Design course at Wellington Polytechnic. She has been selling her work in galleries throughout New Zealand since 1998.

Melissa works generally in bronze and produces delicate figurative pieces, enjoying playing around with figures and objects, finding the right balance between the forms, seeing what works or doesn’t.

By default, Melissa’s inspiration has come from her family. Since becoming a parent, parenthood, the antics of her family and finding the right work/life balance have provided her with a lot of material to draw from. Being creative has allowed Melissa to vent her frustrations in a very healthy way. “A lot of my work is a social commentary on (my) life”.

When her pieces are ready to be cast, they are cast using the lost wax method. Melissa lives and works in Island Bay, Wellington with her husband and their young daughter.