John Young is one of Australia's foremost contemporary artists, noted for his discursive and deeply scholarly approach that combines innovative painterly practice with traditional technical rigour. Deeply rooted in his own bi-cultural experience, Young incorporates elements of Western modernist philosophy, aesthetic theory and art history to consider the sociological impacts of technology; the culture surrounding globalisation and migratory dislocation; as well as academic and social concepts of time, resonance and melancholia.
John Young is a Hong Kong born, Australian artist who lives and works in Melbourne. Since his first exhibition in 1979, Young has had more than 70 solo exhibitions, including two survey exhibitions (Tarrawarra Museum of Art [2005-06]) and at the Drill Hall Gallery, as well as over 160 group exhibitions.
One of his first major projects was held at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, in 1984. His works have been shown in major exhibitions both in Australia and abroad, including at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
He has devoted a large part of his four-decade career towards regional development in Asia, and has participated in many regional group travelling exhibitions including Asialink's Art from Australia: Eight Contemporary Views, (1991, South East Asian Museums), Transcultural Painting (1994-5, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong), AGWA's Confess and Conceal (1993, all South East Asian Museums), as well as Systems End (1996, Japan and Korea) and The Rose Crossing (1999-2001, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia). He was also seminal in establishing in 1995 the Asian Australian Artists' Association (Gallery 4A), now the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, a centre for the promotion of Asian philanthropy and the nurturing of Australasian artists and curators. Young has regular solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, Australia, and also shows in Berlin, Beijing and Hong Kong.
In 2020, John Young AM was made a member of the Order of Australia for significant service to the Visual Arts as a contemporary artist and painter. In 2012, he was also awarded the Australian Visual Arts Fellowship.