ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Charley Young (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Originally from Alberta, Charley holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Maine College of Art (Portland, Maine) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from NSCAD University (Halifax, Nova Scotia).
Charley’s practice combines site-based and indexical modes of making shared between drawing, printmaking, and sculpture. She uses textures found within the natural and built environment to record unique impressions of impermanent places. Much of her work is site-based including historic building facades (Shroud: The Macara-Barnstead Building), ephemeral high-arctic icebergs (Swell), and the intimate space created between clasped hands (The Space Between Held Hands). Despite being varied, these sites are rich with found textures and forms, each unique and identifiable like a fingerprint. Young sees art as a tool for building empathy and connection, often inviting participation in socially engaged and public projects.
Charley has been an artist-in-residence at St. Michael’s Printshop (2022), The Tides Institute and Museum of Art (2017), The Arctic Circle Program (2014), The Banff Centre (2013), The Vermont Studio Centre (2013), Spark Box Studios (2013), The Klondike Institute for Arts and Culture (2012).
Charley’s work is in various collections including The Canada Council Art Bank, Global Affairs Canada, The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, TD Bank Group, Telus Sky Collection and the Nova Scotia Art Bank. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally at the Guangdong Museum of Art (Guangzhou, China), He Xiangning Art Museum (Shenzhen, China), MSVU Art Gallery (Halifax NS), SPACE Gallery (Portland, Maine), CIRCA Art Actual (Montreal, QC), Free Will North Church Project Space (Eastport, Maine), The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax, NS), and the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 (Halifax, NS). In 2014, Charley was included in as one of the artists in the Blouin ARTINFO's Top 30 under 30 in Canada. In 2012, she received the Charlotte Wilson-Hammond/ Visual Arts Nova Scotia Award and the Lieutenants Governor Award presented by the Nova Scotia Talent Trust.
Descending from a long line of educators, Charley Young is Regular Part-time Faculty at NSCAD University teaching drawing and printmaking.