Charley Young is an interdisciplinary artist, interested in printmaking, drawing, installation and mixed media. She graduated as the valedictorian from NSCAD University in Halifax in 2009. Born and raised in the wild, wild west, she attended the Alberta College of Art and Design in her native city of Calgary.

Currently, Charley works at NSCAD University's School of Extended Studies. Sharing a studio with collaborator Sarah Roy in the North End of Halifax she continues to make art about destruction, loss, architecture, history and memories.

Charley has been teaching art to adults and youth for several years through NSCAD University's School of Extended Studies and through the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In addition to art she is interested in type, travel, sewing, Michael Jackson, things that decay, sending and recieving mail and learning things she doesn't know. She also really likes cats.

Artist Statement.

Place influences identity.

I am predominantly interested in the particularities and complexity of locations and their unique pasts. Much of my work is based upon direct interactions with places and the people that inhabit them.

Living in Halifax, Nova Scotia, I have become enamored with the ephemeral and the transitory nature of people and things surrounding me. I have come to discover that Halifax is a place that people temporarily call home and where their physical presence is surprisingly fleeting.  Some of the local architecture seems to be equally as short-lived. In recent years I have watched beautiful maritime churches be demolished to make way for parking lots, and aged brick heritage buildings become threatened by the prospect of new office towers. The ever-present sensation of temporality within the residents and architecture of my home evokes nostalgia and a feeling of loss for what once occupied a space. This void also emphasizes the reality and perhaps necessity of change in all regions.

Photo on right of Charley Young and collaborator Sarah Haydon Roy at Ressurection: Kelly Building site, 1790 Granville Street in Halifax