BIO
Contemporary mixed media artist, Nick Young, was born in Ottawa and now resides in Toronto, Canada. He holds a degree in Architecture from the University of Toronto and practiced professionally for 10 years. In 2009, Nick became a full-time artist and his work has now been exhibited in galleries across Canada, published in architectural and design magazines, and acquired by corporate and private collectors across the globe.
His architectural background and the urban landscape strongly influence his style. Working in plan, section, and elevation, each painting is an abstraction and exploration of new spaces through the fundamentals of composition, texture, and colour. Relying on intuition, rather than preconceived images, each painting is a result of layers upon layers of quick gestures. This palimpsest approach of adding, deleting, and leaving traces of layers past, gives a strong sense of memory and atmosphere to each piece. Most importantly, Nick's objective through his art is to achieve a heightened contemplative emotional response.
Like a city's fabric, structural and organic forms merge, and boundaries become blurred, in an attempt to create a visual poetry.
"I try to apply colours like words that shape poems, like notes that shape music" (Joan Miro).
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
"With every piece decisions are made intuitively. Not every decision is right, so then begins the layering process of patching, repairing, and re-exposing, until it has been wrestled tired and has found resolution. It is only now that I feel the work is complete and the result is a layered dialogue of lessons learnt, accidents, and desires freed".
EDUCATION
2002 Bachelor of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Design, University of Toronto
Canadian Millennium Scholarship
UTAP Scholarship
Thesis Honors
1995 Honors Commerce Degree, Year One, University of Ottawa
RECENT EXHIBITIONS
2019 TACTILE SURFACES, Space Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2018 LAWRENCE PARK ART SHOW, Toronto
2018 AN ARTIST'S JOURNEY, Space Gallery, Denver, Colorado
2016 RAW BEAUTY, Gallery 133, Toronto
2015 ART HAMPTONS, The Original Fine Art Fair of the Hamptons, New York
2015 HAPPENING, Gallery 133, Toronto
2015 LIFE IS COLOURFUL, Art Show and Fundraiser is Support of CAMH, Toronto
2015 THE ARTIST PROJECT, Toronto
2014 COLOUR OF THE CITY, Jane Roos Gallery, Toronto
2014 EXHIBITION OF SMALLS, Koyman Galleries, Ottawa
2014 ART YARD, Toronto
2013 CITY FABRICS, Koyman Galleries, Ottawa
2013 TORONTO ART EXPO, Toronto
2013 TORONTO ARTIST PROJECT, Toronto
2013 TORONTO OUTDOOR ART EXHIBITION, Toronto
2012 TORONTO ARTIST PROJECT, Toronto
2012 QUEEN WEST ART CRAWL, Toronto
2012 EXHIBITION OF SMALLS, Koyman Galleries, Ottawa
2011 FESTIVAL INTERNATIONAL MONTREAL EN ARTS (FIMA), Montreal
2011 SELECTED ARTISTS EXHIBITION, Terence Robert Gallery, Ottawa