John Young Solo Exhibition : Spectrumfigures
10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Central, Hong Kong
OPENING RECEPTION : Friday / 23 April 2021 / 4-8 pm
EXHIBITION PERIOD : 23 April – 29 May 2021
10 Chancery Lane Gallery is proud to present Hong Kong born, Australian artist John Young in Spectrumfigures from April 23rd-May 29, 2021.
This Spring in Hong Kong and during Art Basel HK 2021, John Young will be exhibiting a group of abstract paintings entitled Spectumfigures, as well as a small group of works he created thirteen years ago — 1967 Dispersion; a recollection of the 1967 riots in Hong Kong, the time he departed the then British colony.
Spectrumfigures, a series of spectrum-based coloured abstracts that celebrate the evolution of consciousness in the younger generation of Hong Kongers of the twenty-first century. The dispersion of radiant light through a prism produces a plurality of colours that mark this generation as a spirited generation of many qualities.
The Spectrumfigures are produced by a unique process whereby Young downloads a thousand photographic images from the internet daily, algorithms transform these photographic images into abstract images - one will then be chosen from the thousand, and caringly painted up through jurassic but intricate oil painting techniques. It is what Young terms ‘Human-Technology Friendship’ paintings, a hope for the reciprocity between the cerebral strength of technology and the viscerality evoked by oil painting. This ironic title is derived from the name of a German electro-punk band in the 80’s Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (or German-American Friendship).
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ABOUT JOHN YOUNG
John Young Zerunge was born in Hong Kong in 1956 and moved to Australia in 1967. He read philosophy of science and aesthetics at the University of Sydney and then studied painting and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts, specifically with the conceptual artist Imants Tillers and musical prodigy (the late) David Ahern. His investigation of Western late modernism prompted significant phases of work from a bi-cultural viewpoint, including series of paintings in the last four decades – the Silhouette Paintings, The Polychrome Paintings, the Double Ground Paintings and the Abstract Paintings.
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.
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ABOUT GALLERY, 10 CHANCERY LANE GALLERY
Since 2001, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery is one of Asia’s leading art galleries. With exhibitions that explore both emerging and historically important movements in art in the Asia-Pacific. The gallery continuously keeps its finger on the pulse of contemporary art from the region. 10 Chancery Lane Gallery aims to deliver exhibitions that take time, research and have an impact on the art in the region, as well as promoting contemporary art from Asia internationally.
Founder and Director Katie de Tilly arrived in Hong Kong in 1994 when Chinese and Hong Kong contemporary art, as well as that from most of Asia was yet to come into international focus. With a particular interest in the deep historical, social and cultural context of Hong Kong and China and the development in Asia of its contemporary art scenes, she founded 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in 2001. 10 Chancery Lane Gallery represents emerging, mid-career and established artists from the regiou. In order to help the development of young artists from Hong Kong 10CLG has been organizing “HKForeword” since 2012 giving Hong Kong art graduates their first gallery exhibition. Katie de Tilly is the 2019 recipient of the “Woman of Influence in Arts and Culture” awarded by the American Chamber of Commerce. She was a founding member and former co-President of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association (HKAGA), is on the Industry Advisory Committee (IAC) of RMIT University School of Art /Hong Kong Art School. She is a Founding Patron of the West Kowloon Cultural District’s M+ Museum of Visual Culture. And she is heading the HK Artists Residency Abroad Funding Scheme (ARAFS) of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association to help local artists enrich their art exposure and education. She was formerly a board member of the Tate Modern Asia Pacific Acquisitions Committee (Tate-APAC)
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For press enquiries and to arrange interviews, please contact Ellen Zhuang ellen@10chancerylanegallery.com or +852 2810 0065.
