Carey Young

Carey Young (born 1970) is a visual artist whose work is often inspired by law, politics and economics. The tools, language and architectures of these fields act as material for her videos, text works, performances and photographs, often developing from the professional cultures she explores. In her early video works, she donned attire appropriate to the business and legal worlds, enacting scenarios which examine and question each institution's power to shape society and individual identity. Since 2002, Young developed a large body of work addressing and critiquing law in relation to ideas of site, gender and performance. Young teaches at the Slade School of Fine Art in London where she is an Associate Professor in Fine Art.
Early life and education
Born in Lusaka in Zambia in 1970, Young grew up in Manchester, England and studied at Manchester Polytechnic, the University of Brighton and photography at the Royal College of Art in London. She has dual US/UK citizenship and lives and works in London, UK.
Exhibitions and themes
Young's work has been exhibited at museums and galleries all over the world. Highlights include solo exhibitions at Modern Art Oxford, Dallas Museum of Art, Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, The Power Plant, The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, and inclusion in group exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, Tate Britain, the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Hayward Gallery, Secession, Kunstverein München, Mass MOCA, MoMA PS1, Jeu de Paume and the Venice, Moscow, Taipei, Tirana and Busan biennials.
Young's work is included in the public collections of the Centre Pompidou, Arts Council England, Dallas Museum of Art, and Tate. She is represented by Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Young's projects often center on ideas of the body, language, rhetoric, and systems of power. Since 2002, her work has shifted into an interest in law and the legal imagination. 'Disclaimer', a 2003 exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute examined legal disclaimers as a form of negative space. In 2005, she showed 'Consideration', a series of works exploring the connections between contract law and performance art at Paula Cooper Gallery in New York as part of the PERFORMA05 Biennial. RoseLee Goldberg described the works in this show as "dealing with the overwhelming power of the law." This is seen again in 'Declared Void' (2005) which explores the relationship between the law and the constitutional identity of individuals.
Her 2013 exhibition "Legal Fictions" at Migros Museum in Zurich was described by Mousse Magazine as featuring:"law-based works [that] address the monolithic power of the legal system. The artist examines law as a conceptual and abstract space in which power, rights, and authority are played out through varying forms of performance and language. With the drafting assistance of legal advisers, her works often take the form of experimental but functional legal instruments such as contracts, and also employ media such as video, installation, and text."
Her 2017 video installation 'Palais de Justice', at Paula Cooper Gallery was described by critic Jeffrey Kastner as: “quietly stunning … vividly proposes a juridical world as it might otherwise be, a form of the Law that may someday be possible.”
Johanna Fateman, Artforum, described the work as: "a transfixing (...) speculative fiction", a "tantalising (...) novel mockup of a post-patriarchal legal system."
Laura Cumming, of The Observer, said "Young’s profound and involving examination of the law has continued through film, photography and installation art for more than 20 years. (...) The laws that govern our rights, our agency and even our movements in this world are, for Young, 'a form of choreography'."
Selected solo exhibitions
2023
Modern Art Oxford
2019
La Loge, Brussels;
Towner, Eastbourne
2017
Palais de Justice, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York;
The New Architecture, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas
2013
Legal Fictions, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich;
Let the World Speak for Itself, Le Quartier Centre d'Art Contemporain, Quimper
2010
Memento Park, Eastside Projects, Birmingham (and tour to Cornerhouse, Manchester and MiMA, Middlesbrough);
Contracting Universe, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York
2009
Carey Young: Uncertain Contracts, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence;
Speech Acts, Contemporary Art Museum, St Louis;
Counter Offer, The Power Plant, Toronto
2008
Mutual Release, Thomas Dane, London
2007
If/Then, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York;
Speechcraft, Modern Art Oxford, Oxford (performance);
Consideration, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
2006
Image Transfer, Umea Art Academy, Umea, curated by Maria Lind
2005
Consideration, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York (part of Performa05 Biennial);
The Representative, solo presentation, IBID Projects booth, Zoo Art Fair, London;
Disclaimer, IBID Projects, London
Carey Young, Trafo Gallery, Budapest.
2004
Disclaimer, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds;
Participant Observer, participative workshop on art and economics, IASPIS, Stockholm;
Carey Young, Index, Stockholm;
Viral Marketing, (The Revolution is Us! & Getting Things Done When You're Not in Charge), Kunstverein München
2003
Optimum Performance, A Short History of Performance - Part II, Whitechapel Gallery, London;
Carey Young, IBID Projects, Vilnius;
Viral Marketing, Kunstverein Munich;
2001 - 2002
Business as Usual, John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, Angel Row, Nottingham; Firstsite, Colchester (curated and organised by Film & Video Umbrella)
2001
My Megastore, site-specific works at Virgin Megastore, London;
Carey Young, Video Project Space, Wilkinson Gallery, London
2000
Nothing Ventured, fig-1, London (exh. cat.)
Other publications
Young's work has been included in numerous publications and a number of videos and audio recordings.
Selected periodicals
Cumming, Laura, 'Carey Young: Appearance review – the faces of female justice', The Observer, 26 March 2023
Fateman, Johanna, "Carey Young at Paula Cooper", Artforum, Nov 2017
Farago, Jason, 'Palais de Justice', New York Times, 20 Sept 2017
Bryan-Wilson, Julia. 'Inside Job: Julia Bryan-Wilson on the art of Carey Young,' Artforum, Oct 2010
Bell, Natalie, 'Carey Young', Art Papers, March/April 2008
Schwabsky, Barry, "Carey Young", Artforum, Sept 2005
Smith, Roberta, "The Passions of the Good Citizen", The New York Times, 3 May 2002
Web articles
Kastner, Jeffrey, Garage magazine (Vice magazine), Oct 2017
Bourbon, Matthew, 'Critic's Pick: Carey Young at Dallas Museum of Art', Artforum.com, Feb 2017
Shore, Robert, and Young, Carey, 'Interview with Carey Young: “Friendly, Honest, Straightforward”: Meditations on Power', Elephant magazine, Feb 2017
Goldberg, RoseLee and Stallman, Nick, "Conversations..with RoseLee Goldberg', New York Foundation for the Arts, 2005
Baker, R.C., 'The Road to Dystopia', Village Voice, 2007
Books
Buskirk, Martha; Gygax, Raphael; Young, Carey and Zolghadr, Tirdad, in 'Carey Young: Subject to Contract', JRP Ringier and Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zurich, London, 2013
Farquharson, Alex; Gillick, Liam and Young, Carey; Kelsey, John and Millar, Jeremy, in 'Carey Young, Incorporated', John Hansard Gallery and Film & Video Umbrella, London, 2002
Nochlin, Linda, in Global Feminisms, Brooklyn Museum, New York, 2007
Bourriaud, Nicolas, in Moscow Biennale 7 catalogue, Moscow, 2007
Hoffman, Jens in 'Institutional Critique and After', edited by John C. Welchman, JRP/Ringier, Zürich, 2006
Newman, Michael, in 'How to Improve the World', Hayward Gallery, London, 2006
Townsend, Chris, 'New Art from London', Thames and Hudson, London, 2006
Farquharson, Alex, Schlieker, Andrea, and Mahony, Emma in 'British Art Show 6', Hayward Gallery Publishing, London, 2005
Latour, Bruno and Weibel, Peter, 'Making Things Public', ZKM and the MIT Press, Karlsruhe & Cambridge, 2005
Hoffmann, Jens and Jonas, Joan, 'Art Works: Perform', Thames and Hudson, London, 2005
Kimbell, Lucy (ed), 'New Media Art: Practice and Content in the UK 1994–2004', Arts Council of England / Cornerhouse publications, London, 2004
Videos about the artist
Centre Pompidou (Artist talk in English, with French translation,17 May 2010; duration 1hr 51 mins)
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (introductory video by curator, 2010; duration 6 mins 45 secs)
References
External links
Artist's web site
Artfacts.net artist ranking
Centre Pompidou artist talk, in English and French
Tate video recording of talk featuring the artist
Selected works plus bibliographical and biographical info on Paula Cooper Gallery website
1970 births
Alumni of Manchester Metropolitan University
Alumni of the University of Brighton
Alumni of the Royal College of Art
British women artists
British video artists
British performance artists
American video artists
American women video artists
Living people
American installation artists
British installation artists
Institutional Critique artists
British contemporary artists
21st-century American women