WILLIAM YOUNG (b. 1952)

William Young paints full-time at his studio in the Piney Woods of East Texas, in Palestine. His formal art training included drawing and printmaking courses at the University of Dallas, East Texas State University and Steven F. Austin State University. Young also studied painting with Ancel Nunn and helped in the printing of several of Nunn’s stone-pulled lithographs.

Young’s paintings, etchings and drawings all have a surreal undercurrent, derived from a combination of experience painting under Nunn’s tutelage and his personal inclination for the enigmatic and often strange folklore of Texas. A variety of his works are created as a visual homage to these Lone Star folk stories, while other works are created purely from lyrics of songs that inspire him.

Young’s first art show was as the Temple Emanu-el Art Festival in 1976 where his etching the Last Letter was judged best-in-show by a panel of judges that included Harry Parker, then Director of the Dallas Museum of Art. Since then, Young has pursued both a fine art and commercial art career. His paintings, etchings and drawings are included in many private collections.

Selected Biographical and Career Highlights

• 1952, born in Abilene, Texas

• University of Dallas, Dallas, Texas

• East Texas State University, Commerce, Texas

• Steven F. Austin University, Nacogdoches, Texas

• 2009, Dallas Nine Award, Dallas, Texas

• 2009, Featured artist, Article D Magazine, Dallas, Texas

• 2010 and 2013, finalist, Hunting Art Prize Competition

• Resides in Palestine, Texas

Selected Exhibitions

• 2005, Tyler Museum of Art, Tyler, Texas

• 2005, Museum for East Texas Culture, Palestine, Texas

• 2006, Trinity River Arts Center, Dallas, Texas

• 2007, Texas Five, Museum for East Texas Culture, Palestine, Texas

• 2007, Then and Now, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas

• 2009, Etchings and Dreamscapes, Longview Museum of Fine Art, Longview, Texas

• 2010, Invitational Western Art Show and Sale, Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon, Texas

• 2010, Finalist – Five Parrots Perform King Lear, Hunting Art Prize, Houston, Texas

• 2010-2014, annual exhibition, The Texas Aesthetic, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2013, Hunting Art Prize, Gulf States Toyota Friedkin Corporate Campus, Houston, Texas

• 2013, A Tribute to Texas Rivers, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2013, Hill Country Love Affair, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2013, Holidays at the Haley, Haley Memorial Library, Midland, Texas

• 2014, Painting the Texas Tradition, the Turner House, Dallas, Texas

• 2015 The Holiday Show with the Contemporary Texas Regionalists, William Reaves Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2016 The Texas Aesthetic X, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2016 A Holiday Show: Contemporary Texas Regionalism, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2017 Lonestar Legacies in Contemporary Texas Art, The Haley Memorial Library & History Center, Midland, Texas

• 2017 The Texas Aesthetic XI: The Search for "Texas" in Contemporary Art & Culture, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2017-18 Of Texas Rivers & Texas Art touring exhibition, San Angelo Musuem of Fine Art, San Angelo, Texas; Rotunda Gallery at the Texas State Capitol, Austin, Texas; The Witte Museum, San Antonio, Texas; and The Mayborn Museum at Baylor University, Waco, Texas

• 2017-18 Contemporary Texas Regionalists Winter Show, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2018 The Texas Aesthetic XI: The Search for "Texas" in Contemporary Art & Culture, William Reaves | Sarah Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2019 The New Show, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, Texas

• 2019 The Texas Aethetic: Thirty Contemporary Artists Redefining Texas Art, Foltz Fine Art, Houston, TX

Selected Public Collections

• Bobbie and John L. Nau Collection of Texas Art

William Young

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