JOHN YOUNG

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John Young Zerunge AM (杨子荣) is one of Australia’s foremost senior contemporary artists. Born in Hong Kong and moving to Australia in 1967, he has developed a five-decade practice investigating Western late-modern and postmodern art from a bicultural perspective. Beginning in art criticism and conceptual practice in the late 1970s, Young has exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally.

His work has been presented at major institutions including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1995), and the Kennedy Center, Washington (1994), as well as in large-scale touring exhibitions across Northeast and Southeast Asia (1991-2002). He has held over 80 solo exhibitions worldwide and four major survey exhibitions (Tarra Warra Museum of Art in 2005, ANU Drill Hall Gallery in 2013, Boroondara Town Hall Gallery in 2019, Bunjil Place in 2021), alongside numerous group exhibitions. Several monographs have been dedicated to his work.

In 2021, Diaspora, Psyche, the most comprehensive presentation of John Young’s practice since 2005 was exhibited at Bunjil Place. The exhibition brought into dialogue two of Young’s most significant bodies of work: the History Projects (2008-2019) and the celebrated Double Ground Paintings (1995-2005). This pairing contextualised Young’s recent focus on the history of the Chinese in Australia since 1840 within his four-decades long investigation into the condition of diaspora and the negotiation of bicultural ethics and perspectives.

Young was instrumental in establishing the Asian Australian Artists’ Association in 1995, now the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney - a centre for the promotion of Asian philanthropy and the nurturing of Australasian artists and curators. Since 2008, much of his work has focused on developing a visual history of the Chinese in Australia (1840-1967), culminating in the publication of John Young: The History Projects, edited by Dr Olivier Krischer and published by the Power Institute, Foundation for Art and Visual Culture, University of Sydney.

He has served on numerous boards, including as a Trustee of McClelland Sculpture Park and Gallery, Melbourne, and the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. In 2020, he was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in recognition of his significant and sustained contribution to the visual arts and as a painter, and for his leadership in multicultural advocacy.

For more information, please visit John Young's website here.