John Young, Spectrumfigure III, 2017, Oil on linen, 190 x 150 cm.
10 Chancery Lane Gallery is proud to present Hong Kong born, Australian artist John Young in Spectrumfigures from April 23rd-May 29, 2021.
This Spring in Hong Kong and during Art Basel HK 2021, John Young will be exhibiting a group of abstract paintings entitled Spectumfigures, as well as a small group of works he created thirteen years ago — 1967 Dispersion; a recollection of the 1967 riots in Hong Kong, the time he departed the then British colony.
Spectrumfigures, a series of spectrum-based coloured abstracts that celebrate the evolution of consciousness in the younger generation of Hong Kongers of the twenty-first century. The dispersion of radiant light through a prism produces a plurality of colours that mark this generation as a spirited generation of many qualities.
The Spectrumfigures are produced by a unique process whereby Young downloads a thousand photographic images from the internet daily, algorithms transform these photographic images into abstract images - one will then be chosen from the thousand, and caringly painted up through jurassic but intricate oil painting techniques. It is what Young terms ‘Human-Technology Friendship’ paintings, a hope for the reciprocity between the cerebral strength of technology and the viscerality evoked by oil painting. This ironic title is derived from the name of a German electro-punk band in the 80’s Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (or German-American Friendship).
