John Zerunge Young

Born in Hong Kong in 1956, John Young Zerunge moved to Australia in 1967 during China's Cultural Revolution. He studied Philosophy of Science and Aesthetics at the University of Sydney, then studied sculpture and painting at Sydney College of the Arts with postmodernist artist Imants Tillers.[1] In 1981, he left Australia on pilgrimage to Europe; whilst there, he received the Power Foundation Scholarship from the University of Sydney, enabling him to live in London and Paris. Young was instrumental in Australia's postmodern turn.

Young's first solo exhibition was a one-minute show held in a hamlet in the fishing village of Rosroe, Connemara, on the west coast of Ireland. Since the mid-1980s, Young has produced three major cycles of work, the Silhouette Paintings (1986–89), the Polychrome Paintings (1989–93) and the Double Ground Paintings (1993–present), which explore the relationship between Euro-American models of culture and experience and other modes of visuality, being and the cultural object. More recently, Young has produced series of abstract paintings which deal with concerns around technology and the body: Naïve and Sentimental Paintings, The Day After Tomorrow and Spectrumfigures. Since 2008, Young’s projects have focussed on transcultural humanitarianism, culminating in the projects Bonhoeffer in Harlem (Berlin, 2009), Safety Zone (Melbourne, 2010; Brisbane 2011), and his investigations into the history of the Chinese diaspora in Australia since 1840, through projects Open Monument (Ballarat, 2013–15),1866: The Worlds of Lowe Kong Meng and Jong Ah Siug (Melbourne 2015), Modernity's End (Melbourne, 2016) and The Burrangong Affray (Sydney, 2018).

Young has been the subject of three survey exhibitions: Orient/Occident: John Young, 1978-2005 held at the TarraWarra Museum of Art,[2] Victoria in 2005-2006; The Bridge and the Fruit Tree at ANU Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra in 2013, and recently The Lives of Celestials: John Young Zerunge at Town Hall Gallery,[3] Boroondara, Melbourne in 2019. He was also critical in establishing in 1995 the Asian Australian Artists' Association (Gallery 4A), now the 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney, a centre for the promotion of Asian philanthropy and the nurturing of Australasian artists and curators.

John Young is represented by Olsen Gallery, Sydney; ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne; Philip Bacon Galleries, Brisbane; Moore Contemporary, Perth; 10 Chancery Lane, Hong Kong; Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai and Singapore and Alexander Ochs Private, Berlin

In the 2020 Australia Day Honours Young was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his "significant service to the visual arts, and as a role model".[4]

Young currently resides in Melbourne.[5]

• 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;[6] 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 [7]
• 2019 The Lives of Celestials: John Young Zerunge, Town Hall Gallery, Boroondara, Melbourne

Young has been commissioned for numerous significant national and international public projects.

• 2013-15 Open Monument, a permanent monument recording the contribution of the Chinese population in Ballarat, 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)[8]
• 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)[9]
• 2001 Interchange, Mass Transit Railway, Hong Kong

• 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

• John Young official website
• John Young at ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne
• John Young at Olsen Gallery, Sydney
• John Young at 10 Chancery Lane, Hong Kong
• John Young at Asia Art Archive
• 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art – an initiative of the Asian Australian Artists’ Association Inc. Founding President: John Young
• Works by John Young in the Art Gallery of New South Wales Collection
• John Young at National Gallery of Australia