Josh Gluckstein

Edition Four Feature
Words by: Josh Gluckstein
Location: London, UK 
Photo Credits: ©Josh Gluckstein @joshglucksteinartist

I am a London-based wildlife artist who uses found and recycled materials to create life-size animal sculptures. Inspired by my travels, I seek to recreate the presence and personality of some of the most majestic animals I have seen in the wild, all while creating almost zero waste. Sustainability and animal conservation are at the heart of my practice. 

When the UK’s first lockdown began in March 2020, I lost my work as a prop maker and had to give up my studio space. I had limited resources but lots of time to think and started to experiment with recycled cardboard. It has always been important to me to make my work as sustainable as possible. The accessibility and versatility of cardboard, with its many tones and textures, allowed me to bring a new creative vision to life in my living room. Cardboard enables me to work on a large scale and allows me to capture the intricate details and raw emotions of the animals that I represent. I have spent the last year or so working from my two-bedroom flat in London, filling the space with my ever-growing menagerie. 

I am a born-and-bred Londoner. Since university, I knew I wanted to travel the world to come face to face with animals in the wild. I worked full-time in restaurants to save money to travel, making art in every spare second in between. My inspiration has always come from wildlife. I was glued to David Attenborough documentaries as a child and, as a teen, spent my weekends sketching at the Natural History Museum. I have travelled through Southeast Asia, East Africa, Australia and South and Central America, volunteering and having extraordinary animal encounters. I have sketched giant tortoises in the Galapagos Islands, swum with whale sharks off Mexico and hiked through thick jungle to spend a precious hour with a family of gorillas in the mountains of Uganda. 

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