John Young (Young Zerunge) was born in Hong Kong and moved to Australia in 1967. His first solo exhibition was held in a hamlet in the fishing village of Rosroe, Connemara, on the west coast of Ireland. Since then he has had more than 70 solo exhibitions and over 160 group exhibitions, including representing Australia at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. In 2005-06, a survey exhibition covering 27 years of works was held at the TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria. In 2013, a second survey exhibition was held in Canberra at the Australian National University Drill Hall Gallery. Three monographs have been published on his practice.
John Young’s ongoing investigation of Western late modernism has prompted significant phases of work from a transcultural viewpoint with a focus on the regional development in the Asia-Pacific. Young was the recipient of the Australia Council Visual Arts Fellowship in 2013 to research on the History of the Chinese Diaspora in Australia, from which has emerged diverse projects, such as the design and construction of Open Monument-a permanent monument in recognition of the contribution of Chinese to Ballarat and surrounding region from 1840. Young is collected by all national galleries around Australia, as well as important international museums such as M+, Hong Kong, and has permanent installations in Hong Kong, Nanjing, Tokyo and Bamburg.
