Monday, August 27, 2012

OUR Artist of the Week: Austin Young


Austin Young came into the world on April 14th, 1966 and grew up in Reno Nevada --a city and state he is immensly fond of to this day. His family were Ranchers and engineers with ties to the region reaching back to the 1800s.

Like most of us, Austin Young felt he didn't fit in while growing up. 

Describing himself as "terribly shy", during his teenage years, he was a self described social outcast who endured teasing and taunts of "Faggot, queer and homo".  Because of that daily abuse,  Austin felt Junior High and High School were unsafe environments for him.  He remembers "--one day deciding that if people were going to call me a freak, I might as well be one.

And an artist was born. 


 
Pop Culture, was his saving grace and inspired his creative endeavors.  Young has been documenting pop, sub, and trans culture since 1985 through portraiture. *"A portrait is a representation of an individual; it’s intent: to capture the essence of the sitter."

His short videos have over 5 million hits on YouTube. He is one third of the collaborative art group, Fallen Fruit.

Young’s portraits have been featured in major publications such as Interview magazine, OK, and Flaunt. His work has been the subject solo exhibitions and projects at Pop tArt Gallery (Los Angeles, CA), Machine Project (Los Angeles, CA), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, CA), Berkeley Art Museum (Berkley, California); and as well as groups shows at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (Los Angeles, CA) among many others.  *wikipedia.

It is easy to note that his work is visually striking, entertaining and pleasing to the eye.  It combines traditional and off-beat beauty with emotion and intimacy that connects to the viewer in a profound contemporary way.

Meet the Artist here:




1 comments:

Anonymous said...

LUV his stuff!!!!

 
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