Peter Young
(1940–)
Peter Young
1940–
Peter Young (1940– ) was an American painter born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After growing up in Los Angeles, Young moved to New York City in 1960, beginning his career as an abstract artist. From the start, his work evaded classification. The geometric, repetitive, and grid-like elements of his work reference minimalism, however, the organic handmade imperfections of the dots that make up his compositions resist minimalism’s rigid formal qualities. As such, his work is often associated with Minimalism, Post-minimalism, and Lyrical Abstraction.
Young began painting seriously in 1963. He was included in several group exhibitions throughout the 60s and 70s held at important venues in New York City, such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Leo Castelli Gallery. He had his first two solo exhibitions in 1967 and 1970 at the Noah Goldowsky Gallery. In 1987, he exhibited at Richard Bellamy’s Oil & Steel Gallery in Tribeca. Despite his success, Young chose to distance himself from the American artist circles in New York City in 1969, and he travelled to Morocco, Spain, and Costa Rica, before settling in Bisbee, Arizona, where he continues to live and work.
Young’s relationship with Bellamy eventually led to a comprehensive survey exhibition of his work from 1963 to 1977 at the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Centre, curated by director Alanna Heiss, in 2007. Throughout his career, Young’s work has been exhibited in over 100 group exhibitions and 40 solo exhibitions. His paintings are held in the permanent collection at significant institutions such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Australian National Gallery, Canberra, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, among others