PRESS RELEASE
Michael Young: Updrafts
Jun 24 – Oct 7, 2017
Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to introduce, Michael Young: Updrafts, an exhibition of new paintings by the Austin-based artist. An opening reception will be held Saturday, June 24 from 5-8 pm. This exhibition marks the artists’ first show with the Dallas gallery and it continues through October 7.
Over the last 30 years, Michael Young has developed a diverse and kaleidoscopic body of abstract geometric paintings, drawings and installations. Central to his work is an emphasis on facture, an attunement to the methodologies of making or constructing his paintings. His painting procedures are adapted from different sources such as geology, scientific documentation and architectural production, and result from the use of specific materials to construct the surfaces. For example, past installations and paintings have been distinguished by the use of sand collected from deserts, reflecting the mineral color of the geology of their place.
Young’s recent body of work, Updrafts, uses graphite, CNC fabricated drawing templates and multiple layers of transparent acrylic medium. His individual formal language is drawn from a lexicon of interrelated subjects such as Mimbres pottery, tantric art, geology, seismographs, modernist and colonial architecture, stereotomy, desert landscapes, petroglyphs, Japanese pottery, Native American design languages, textiles, microphotography, bee hives and the study of pollen.
The artist received a MFA from Yale University School of Art, New Haven, CT (1977) and a BFA from The University of Texas at Austin, TX (1975). He has participated in the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art, as well as, the Skowhegan School of Sculpture and Painting. He was recipient of the Alice B. Kimball Travelling Fellowship from Yale University and has received several grants and awards including a Visual Arts Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts; a Mazer Faculty Development Grant from Brandeis University, and a Creative Arts Program Grant from New York State Council for the Arts. Young was born in Houston, Texas and currently lives and works in Austin, Texas.
Young’s works have been included in numerous gallery exhibitions throughout the U.S. and abroad at galleries such as; Blum Helman Gallery, Pace Prints, Daniel Weinberg Gallery, Annina Nosei Gallery, Barbara Krakow Gallery, Lorence Monk Gallery, Betty Cunningham Gallery, Tony Shafrazi Gallery, Nohra Haime Gallery, Michael Kohn Gallery, and CDS Gallery. Prestigious museum institutions have also exhibited the work such as; The Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the Whitney Museum of American Art at the Equitable Center, Cleveland Center for Contemporary Art, the Denver Art Museum, Weatherspoon Art Gallery, and the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University.
His works are in the permanent collections of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Smithsonian Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA; Berkeley Museum, Berkeley, CA; The Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Neuberger Museum of Art, S.U.N.Y. at Purchase, NY; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, CA; and the Seibu Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
Articles on his work include reviews in; The New York Times, The New Yorker, Art in America, Artforum, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, Flash Art, Art & Auction, Tema Celeste, Next, The Village Voice, artsmagazine, and Bomb Magazine.
Young is artist-in-residence and collaborator with Pollen Architecture & Design. He taught in the graduate painting program at the Rhode Island School of Design, as well as at Princeton and the University of Texas at Austin. Young is also an accomplished speaker and has lectured at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the American Academy in Rome, Pasadena Art Center, Brandeis University, Cornell University, Yale University, Rhode Island school of Design, and the Massachusetts College of Art.
Holly Johnson Gallery is located at 1845 Levee Street #100 in Dallas’ Design District. Gallery hours are 11 to 5, Tuesday – Saturday or by appointment. For more information please call 214-369-0169, or email info@hollyjohnsongallery.com, or visit the gallery website at www.hollyjohnsongallery.com.