Carey Young


Carey Young is a visual artist who has developed her artistic practice from a cross-fertilization of disciplines including economics, law, politics, science and communication. The tools of these different fields act as material for her installations, text works and photographs, as well as for videos in which absurd relationships develop between the performer and the rhetoric of political, commercial or legal discourse. Young's work often develops from within the particular cultures she explores. She has often immersed herself in the business or legal worlds, donning the appropriate attire and enacting recommended scenarios in order to examine and question the reach of each institution's power and its ability to shape our contemporary reality.

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 USA/UK citizenship and lives and works in London, UK.

Exhibitions and themes

Young has exhibited her work at many galleries all over the world. Highlights include the ICA, the Whitechapel Art Gallery, the Hayward Gallery, Secession, Kunstverein München, Mass MOCA and the Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Young's work is included in the public collections of the Centre Pompidou, Arts Council England, Dallas Museum of Art, and the Tate. She is represented by Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Young's projects often center on notions of language, training and performance, and take an ambiguous political stance to create a web of complex questions for the viewer. Since 2003, her work has shifted into an interest in legal language and systems of thought, with 'Disclaimer', an exhibition at the Henry Moore Institute examining the legal disclaimer 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 has described the works in this show as "dealing with the overwhelming power of the law."
Her 2013 exhibition "Legal Fictions" at Migros Museum in Zurich was described by Mousse Magazine as featuring:
"law-based works 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 '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 postpatriarchal legal system."

Selected solo exhibitions

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 ;
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 ;
Consideration, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis
2006
Image Transfer, Umea Art Academy, Umea, curated by Maria Lind
2005
Consideration, Paula Cooper Gallery, New York ;
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,, 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
2001
My Megastore, site-specific works at Virgin Megastore, London;
Carey Young, Video Project Space, Wilkinson Gallery, London
2000
Nothing Ventured, fig-1, London

Other publications

Young's work has been included in several publications, such as the book Contemporary Art in the United Kingdom, Black Dog Publishing, London, UK, edited by Adler P., and a number of videos and audio recordings.

Selected periodicals