ABOUT

TIMELINE

1956	Born in Hong Kong.
1967	Moves to Sydney due to the conditions surrounding the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China.
	Receives early training in Russian Impressionism and at the Julian Ashton School of Art.
	Wins scholarship to study painting at The National Art School, Sydney, but declines scholarship to read philosophy.
1977	Reads philosophy of science and aesthetics in the Department of General Philosophy, University of Sydney.
	Completes thesis on Wittgenstein and aesthetics. Paper awarded First Class Honours.
	Searches for conceptual art activities at the Tin Sheds, but finds that most of the artists had moved to the newly formed Sydney College of the Arts.
1978	Initially intends to apply for a tutorship position at Sydney College of the Arts, but instead studies painting and sculpture there. Engages in discussions with David Ahern, Robin Coombes, Richard Dunn and Imants Tillers.
	Involved in the punk movement, especially with the band The Slug Fuckers.
	Edits magazine ZX.
1979	Travels to Beijing and Manchuria. Completes conceptual activities in Harbin and Changchun.
1980	Undertakes factory work and one year’s performative work, later titled Drawing in Ten Parts.
1981	Receives the Power Foundation Scholarship for young artists and resides in London and Paris until 1983.
	Writes (together with Terry Blake) 'Some Alternatives to the Code in the Age of Hyperreality: the Hermit and the City Dweller’ situating Baudrillard’s work within the art context, one of the earliest writings on Post-Modernism and art in Australia.
1982	Undertakes pilgrimage in the UK and Europe. Holds first solo exhibition, The Second Mirage, in a hamlet in the fishing village of Rosroe, Connemara, on the extreme west coast of Ireland.
1983	Lectures in Studio Theory and Painting at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney until 1994.
	Joins Yuill/Crowley in Sydney.
1984	The solo exhibition John Young opens at the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.
	Gives sole presentation by an artist in FuturFall – Excursions into Post Modernity,* the first major conference on Post-Modernity held at the University of Sydney.
1986	Begins the Silhouette Paintings series.
1987	Joins United Artists’ Gallery (now Anna Schwartz Gallery) in Melbourne.
1988	Participates in the XXIV Olympiad of Art at Seoul’s National Museum of Art, together with Jenny Watson, John Nixon and Robert Owen.
1989	Begins the Polychrome Paintings series.
1991	Participates in Asialink’s first regional exhibition, Art from Australia: Eight Contemporary Views, curated by Alison Carroll (Manila, Kuala Lumpur, Singapore).
1992	Meets Nam June Paik in Bonn and Martin Kippenberger in Koln.
1993	Joins Sherman Galleries in Sydney by invitation from William Wright AM.
	Participates in AGWA’s Confess and Conceal, 11 insights from contemporary Australia and South East Asia (Bangkok, Singapore, Perth, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur, Manila).
	First monograph by Graham Coulter-Smith is published.
	Begins the Double Ground Paintings series.
1994	Represents Australia in Antipodean Currents (1994-5) at the Kennedy Centre, Washington D.C. and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.
	Participates in the travelling exhibition Transcultural Painting (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Beijing).
1995	Establishes the Asian Australian Artists’ Association (Gallery 4A) with Vicente Butron, Melissa Chiu, Emil Goh, et al., 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.
	Meets Xu Bing and Gu Wenda in New York.
1996	Participates in Systems End, curated by William Wright AM and Takeshi Kanazawa (Osaka, Seoul, Kaoshiung) and Spirit and Place: A Century of Art in Australia, curated by Nick Waterlow OAM and Ross Mellick (Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney).
1997	Moves to Melbourne and lives at Macgeorge House, Ivanhoe.
	Marries Kate Mizrahi.
1998	Son Jasper born in April.
	Receives the VACB Artist’s Residency and travels to Tokyo, Japan.
	Meets Cai Guo Qiang.
1999	Participates in The Rose Crossing, curated by William Wright AM (Singapore, Perth, Sydney, Hong Kong).
2002	Daughter Charlotte-Persia born in April.
	Lives in Melbourne and Merricks Beach, Mornington Peninsula.
2005	Orient / Occident: John Young – a survey of works, 1978-2005, curated by Maudie Palmer, opens at TarraWarra Museum of Art, Victoria.
	A monograph by Dr Carolyn Barnes is published by Craftsman House, Thames and Hudson.
2006	Joins Alexander Ochs Galleries Berlin \| Beijing.
	Begins the Abstract Paintings series.
2007	Joins 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Hong Kong.
	Completes the large tapestry commission Open World, woven by the Australian Tapestry Workshop, which is gifted by the State of Victoria to the Province of Jiangsu. The tapestry is now housed permanently in the Nanjing Library, China.
2008	Travels to the Central Desert.
	Travels to Antarctica.
2009	Bonhoeffer in Harlem, a celebration of the life of humanitarian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, opens at St Matthaus Church, Kulturforum, Berlin.
	Re-joins the board of the Asian Australian Artists’ Association, Sydney.
2010	Safety Zone, a tribute to 21 foreigners who saved the lives of 300,000 citizens during the ‘Rape of Nanjing’ in 1937, opens at Anna Schwartz Gallery, Melbourne.
2011	Safety Zone opens at the University of Queensland Art Museum, Brisbane.
2012	Receives the Australia Council Visual Arts Fellowship for established artists and undertakes a two-year research project concerning the Chinese diaspora in Australia.
2013	The Bridge and the Fruit Tree, a major survey show, opens at the Australian National University Drill Hall Gallery, Canberra, under Terence Maloon's directorship.
	Joins ARC ONE Gallery, Melbourne
2014	Joins Pearl Lam Gallery, Singapore & Shanghai. National Gallery of Australia purchases, Castiglione's Dream, a key work from the critical Double Ground series.
2015	Farewell to William Wright, a great friend, and mentor. Open Monument, a three-year project is launched in Frazer Reserve, Ballarat Friendship with novelist Brian Castro leads to new projects. John Young Studio relocates to Port Melbourne.
2016	Travels to Shanghai with family for first solo exhibition with Pearl Lam Galleries
2017	Joins Olsen Gallery, Sydney. Re-kindles interest in the history of Macau, leads to a new project with friend Brian Castro and the publishing of a book 'Macau Days', supported by the JM Coetzee Centre.
2019	Joins the Board of McClelland Sculpture Park & Gallery.
2020	Is conferred as a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), in recognition of his substantial and ongoing contribution to the Australian Visual Arts Sector, and for his work as a role model in multicultural advocacy.
2021	John Young Studio relocates to Kew, Melbourne

JY Merricks