John Zerunge Young ( born 1956) is a Hong Kong-born Australian artist.

Early life and education

Born in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

in 1956, John Zerunge Young moved to Australia as a child in 1967 during China's

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

. Young first studied Russian

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

at the

Julian Ashton Art School The Julian Ashton Art School was established by Julian Ashton in 1890 as the "Academy Julian", (perhaps a reference to the Académie Julian in Paris) has been an influential art school in Australia. For a long time it was known as the Sydney Art ...

, then, after declining a scholarship to study

painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

at the

National Art School The National Art School (NAS) is a tertiary level art school, located in , an inner-city suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The school is an independent accredited higher education provider offering specialised study in studio arts p ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, studied Philosophy of Science and Aesthetics at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's si ...

, earning a First Class Honours degree for his thesis on

Wittgenstein Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein ( ; ; 26 April 1889 – 29 April 1951) was an Austrians, Austrian-British people, British philosopher who worked primarily in logic, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of mind, and the philosophy o ...

and

Aesthetics Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed thr ...

. He then studied sculpture and painting at

Sydney College of the Arts The Sydney College of the Arts (SCA) is a contemporary art school that was a faculty of the University of Sydney from 1990 until 2017, when it became a school of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Until the end of 2019, the campus was locat ...

with

postmodernist art Postmodern art is a body of art movements that sought to contradict some aspects of modernism or some aspects that emerged or developed in its aftermath. In general, movements such as intermedia, installation art, conceptual art and multimedia, ...

ist

Imants Tillers Imants Tillers (born 1950), is an Australian artist, curator and writer. He lives and works in Cooma, New South Wales. Early life and education Imants Tillers was born in Sydney in 1950, the child of Latvian immigrants. In 1973 he graduated from ...

and avant-garde composer and musician David Ahern.

Career

In the early 1980s he moved to Europe, living in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(at the

Cité internationale des arts The Cité internationale des arts is an artist-in-residence building complex which accommodates artists of all specialities and nationalities in Paris. It comprises two sites, one located in the Marais and the other in Montmartre. Approximately ...

) for a couple of years after being awarded the Power Foundation Scholarship from Sydney University. Upon his return to Australia, Young lectured at

, University of Sydney from 1983 to 1994. Young's first

solo exhibition A solo show or solo exhibition is an exhibition of the work of only one artist. The artwork may be paintings, drawings, etchings, collage, sculpture, or photography. The creator of any artistic technique may be the subject of a solo show. Other s ...

was a one-minute show held in a hamlet in the fishing village of Rosroe,

Connemara Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speak ...

, on the west coast of Ireland, in 1982. Three series of painting followed: the ''Silhouette Paintings'', the ''Polychrome Paintings'' and the ''Double Ground Paintings''. He played an important role as a founding member in 1996 of the

Asian Australian Artists' Association Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

(Gallery 4A), now the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art,

, a gallery and centre for the advocacy of

Asian Australian Asian Australians refers to Australians of Asian ancestry, whether full or partial, including naturalised Australians who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants. At the 2021 census, the number of ances ...

and Asian contemporary art. He moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

in 1997. In 2009, Young re-joined the board of the 4A Centre, but as of 2021 is no longer a member of the board.

Themes

Young has produced series of

abstract painting Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world. Western art had been, from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th ...

s which deal with concerns around technology and the body: ''Naïve and Sentimental Paintings,'' ''The Day After Tomorrow'' and ''Spectrumfigures''. After 2008, his projects started focusing on transcultural

humanitarianism Humanitarianism is an active belief in the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotional ...

, including ''

Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer (; 4 February 1906 – 9 April 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was a key founding member of the Confessing Church. His writings on Christianity's role in the secular world have ...

in Harlem'' (

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, 2009), ''Safety Zone'' (Melbourne, 2010;

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, 2011).

Recognition

Young was awarded the

Australia Council for the Arts The Australia Council for the Arts, commonly known as the Australia Council, is the country's official arts council, serving as an arts funding and advisory body for the Government of Australia. The council was announced in 1967 as the Austra ...

' Visual Arts Craft Board (VACB) Artist’s Residency in 1998, to travel to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

, and its Visual Arts Fellowship for established artists in 2012, undertaking a project on the history of the Chinese diaspora in Australia. In the 2020

Australia Day Honours The Australian honours and awards system refers to all orders, decorations, and medals, as instituted by letters patent from the Monarch of Australia and countersigned by the Australian prime minister at the time, that have been progressively int ...

Young was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

(AM) for his "significant service to the visual arts, and as a role model".

Personal life

Young resides in Melbourne with his partner and two children .

Selected exhibitions

Young has been the subject of three survey exhibitions: ''Orient/Occident: John Young, 1978-2005'' held at the

TarraWarra Museum of Art TarraWarra Museum of Art is an art museum in Tarrawarra, Victoria, 45 kilometres northeast of Melbourne. Founded by philanthropists and art collectors Eva and Marc Besen, it is the first museum of art in Australia supported by a significant priva ...

, Victoria, in 2005-2006; ''The Bridge and the Fruit Tree'' at

ANU Anu ( akk, , from wikt:𒀭#Sumerian, 𒀭 ''an'' “Sky”, “Heaven”) or Anum, originally An ( sux, ), was the sky father, divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the list of Mesopotamian deities, dei ...

Drill Hall Gallery The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and i ...

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

in 2013; and ''The Lives of Celestials: John Young Zerunge'' at Town Hall Gallery,

Boroondara The City of Boroondara () is a local government area in Victoria, Australia. It is located in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It was formed in June 1994 from the amalgamation of the Cities of Kew, Camberwell and Hawthorn. It has an area of . ...

, Melbourne in 2019. *1982 ''The Second Mirage'', Rosroe, Connemara, Ireland *1995 ''Antipodean Currents'', The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; The John F. Kennedy Centre, Washington DC, curated by Julia Robinson *1995 ''Transcultural Painting'', Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne, Taichung Museum of Art, Taichung; Tamsui Centre for Art and Culture, Taipei, Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong, Guangzhou Institute of Fine Arts, Guangzhou; Song He Tan Gallery, Beijing, curated by Francis Lindsay and Merryn Gates *1996 ''Systems End'', Oxy Gallery, Osaka; Hakone Open Air Museum, Hakone; Dong An Gallery, Seoul; Kaoshung Museum of Art, Kaoshiung, curated by William Wright and Takeshi Kanazawa *2005-2006 ''Orient/Occident: John Young – a survey of works, 1978-2005'', TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria, curated by Maudie Palmer *2009 ''Bonhoeffer in Harlem'', Installation at St. Matthaus Church, Berlin (in conjunction with Alexander Ochs Galleries, Berlin/Beijing) *2010-2011 ''Safety Zone'', Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne; University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane *2013 ''The Bridge and the Fruit Tree: John Young - A Survey'', ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra *2016 ''The repetition of the good. The repetition of the bad,'' Alexander Ochs Gallery, New Synagogue, Berlin - Centrum Judaicum *2017 ''Macau Days,'' Migration Museum, Adelaide *2018 ''The Burrangong Affray,'' 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney *2019 ''The Lives of Celestials: John Young Zerunge,'' Town Hall Gallery, Boroondara, Melbourne

Commissions

Young has been commissioned for numerous significant national and international public projects, including: * 2013-15 ''Open Monument'', a permanent monument recording the contribution of the Chinese population in

Ballarat Ballarat ( ) is a city in the Central Highlands (Victoria), Central Highlands of Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. At the 2021 Census, Ballarat had a population of 116,201, making it the third largest city in Victoria. Estimated resid ...

, City of Ballarat, Victoria * 2010-2011 ''Finding Kenneth Myer'', Tapestry commissioned by Lady Southey and the Myer Family (produced with the Australian Tapestry Workshop for the National Library of Australia) * 2005 ''Open World,'' Tapestry commissioned by the Victorian State Government for Jiangsu Province, China to mark the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the sister city relationship between Nanjing and Melbourne (produced with the Victorian Tapestry Workshop for Nanjing Library, Nanjing) * 2001 Interchange, Mass Transit Railway, Hong Kong

Publications

* John Young, Carolyn Barnes & William Wright, ''John Young'', Craftsman House, Thames & Hudsons, Australia, 2005 * Alexander Ochs, Christhard-Georg Neubert, Kevin Rudd, Sylvia Volz, Wolfgang Huber, ''John Young / Bonhoeffer in Harlem'', Edition St. Matthäus-Kirche Berlin, 2009 * John Clark & Pamela Kember, ''John Young: Three Propositions'', Prüss & Ochs Gallery, Berlin, 2003 * Brian Castro & M.A. Greenstein, ''John Young: Pine's Edge'', Black Inc., Melbourne, 2001 * Graham Coulter-Smith, Christina Davidson & Graham Forsyth, with a foreword by Leon Parossian, ''John Young: Silhouettes and Polychromes'', Schwartz City Publications, Melbourne, 1993 * Peter Hutchings & John Clark, with foreword by Frances Lindsay and an introduction by Melissa Chiu, ''John Young: The Double Ground Paintings'', Australian Art Promotions, Sydney, 1995 * John Young & Terry Blake, 'On Some Alternatives to the Code in the Age of Hyperreality, the Hermit and the City Dweller', ''Art & Text #2'', Winter issue, 1981

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, John Zerunge Artists from Sydney Hong Kong artists 1956 births Living people Members of the Order of Australia