Biography

Jason Young was born June 7th, 1969 in Vancouver, Canada. An art enthusiast by the age of 16, Young began studying painting at the Cleveland Institute of Fine Arts in Lacoste, France. From there he headed west to the School of Fine Arts at The University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Young completed his "classical" fine art education by apprenticing under world renowned Russian Artist Yuri Kuper at his ateliers in Normandy and Paris, while attending the Sorbonne in 1990. Studying overseas-taught Young the fundamentals in the highly realistic figurative style of "trompe-l'oeuil" for which Mr. Kuper was so famous. Rounding out his art education, Young immersed himself in the more contemporary and conceptual side of the art world at the Institute des Hautes Etudes en Arts Plastiques. He was one of only twenty artists to be accepted by this full scholarship school- headed by the founding curator of the Beaubourg and Moderna Museet, Pontus Hulten and world famous artists Daniel Buren and Sarkis.

Directly following his education, still living in Paris, Jason Young was awarded with solo and group shows in both Los Angeles and his hometown of Vancouver. Almost immediately he gained representation from the James Corcoran Gallery in Santa Monica, the Cristinerose Gallery in New York, and the Monte Clark Gallery in Vancouver. Evolving as an artist, Young was not only developing his own style, but also gaining instant recognition from his peers as being one of only a handful of artists to pioneer the new medium of resin painting.

Throughout the years, Young's artistic style and use of materials have become increasingly intricate and daring. Using various resins and metals, Young creates a mercurial mutated medium transforming his traditional art training into a form of high-tech minimal "trompe-l'oeuil." Most currently his "foil" painting, play with color, light refraction and reflection in particularly innovative ways.

In 1994 Jason Young began a sequence of solo shows in Milan, Spain, and Korea. During that time he continued to gain representation by the Thomas Soloman's Garage in Los Angeles, the Christopher Cutts Gallery in Toronto, the Clifford Smith Gallery in Boston, and the Galeria Leyendecker in Spain.

Working in both painting and sculpture, Young has been featured in numerous museum shows including, "Paintings that Paint Themselves" at the Kresge Museum in Michigan, "Materiality" at the Elaine L. Jacob Gallery at Wayne State University. His painting "Gunmetal Tap" was chosen from a pool of 68 artists works for the invitation and catalogue cover at the Tucson Museum Art show "Paint on Metal," which included the works of Frank Stella, Robert Rausenberg, John Baldessari, John Chamberlain, and Alexander Calder, to name a few. Robert A.M. Stern has commissioned Young's works. Two of Young's large-scale paintings now constitute permanent installation in the newly remodeled lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.

Three years ago Young extended art into filmmaking. He collaborated with director Pascal Franchot to make "The Curling Stones," an award winning experimental short, which was well received in the film festival circuit. This laid the foundation for WHITE, a one-of-a-kind film that incorporates live-performance, painting, sculpture and installation.