146 ArtSpace - new exhibition - Upbeat by Alan Young

Wednesday, 10 October 2012

Alan Young is an exciting Tasmanian artist who has developed his practice over a number of years. He has created a large body of work that has launched him onto the national stage with a recent successful exhibition at the Ray Hughes Gallery in Sydney as well as winning the Bay of Fires Art Prize earlier this year.

Upbeat is fantastic opportunity to view his latest work.

Artist Statement

My paintings are grounded in what I perceive through everyday experiences and observations. I am particularly interested in the relationships between people and place and how these intersect with notions around mapping. Sometimes, I capture moments and sometimes I tell stories.

This body of work has a particularly positive and personal focus. My paintings are a response to situations I have encountered in the last year. There is also a focus on characters, specific people who are my friends either personally or professionally. Technically, it has been a challenging body of work to produce, as it includes several larger size paintings. Accordingly, I have had to rethink decisions about form, line, text and colour.

Alan Young

From the exhibition essay ‘Young and Modern'

“Everyone benefits from an artist whose sublimation is finely tuned. According to the artist, the highly confident body of works in his exhibition Upbeat at Artspace in Hobart stem from concentrated focus on the positive experiences in his life, not just using art as an outlet for his frustrations – which have been many at times. The human hand is everywhere, visible in each brush stroke, each overdrawn line, in these audaciously non-high tech units of culture. …. One collector stated that she found Alan Young’s paintings so easy to live with because they are so human. ‘It’s almost like having someone else in the room.’ “

Craig Johnson, October 2012

Download and read Craig Johnson’s essay 'Young and Modern' about Alan Young’s Upbeat exhibition - PDF 68KB.

Exhibition is open during office hours from 12 October - 12 November 2012.

Alan has received funding through the Arts Tasmania Arts and Disability Fund and was also a resident of 146 ArtStudios in 2012.

Image: At the Beach and Richmond Beats Sydney by Alan Young.

Image: Sharing Music by Alan Young.