Besada Yakoub/ 3D Art

Besada Yakoub is a Coptic-American sculptor working primarily in granite, basalt, limestone, and marble. A self-taught artist, he began carving wood and working with metal at age 12. In 2018, he created Obeliskism, a style using the geometry of the obelisk shape to create abstract, vertical sculptural forms. He immigrated to the United States in 1999.

His work has been recognized with the Michelangelo International Prize (2023), the Artistic Career Award from the Effetto Arte Foundation (2023), a grant from the George and Helen Segal Foundation (2003), and the Hassan Heshmat Award (1998). He has completed public commissions, including a life-size black granite sculpture for the City of Aswan, Egypt, and limestone reliefs for the North Texas Coptic Museum. His work is held in permanent collections at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts, the El Gouna Museum (Egypt), and The Sculpture Foundation (NJ). He is a member of the National Sculpture Society and lives in Memphis, Tennessee.