Get Young’s artwork while you can

Some people sit back and wait for things to happen in their lives. They hope that they’ll… Some people sit back and wait for things to happen in their lives. They hope that they’ll stumble across good fortune, happening to be in the right place at the right time, and suddenly their lives will be set. Maybe it’s money. Maybe it’s fame. They don’t know, but they’re waiting.

Then there are people like Kelly Young, people who take control and try to mold their futures into what they’ve always dreamed of.

Young, born in Taiwan and now living in Pittsburgh, has achieved modest success as an artist since his first major show in 2000. He has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, had several exhibitions, sold custom-made works, and been featured in various local publications. Young now has a small gallery space in Lawrenceville where he exhibits his installations — a unique style of installation which uses engraved or spray-painted acrylic sheets suspended in front of painted canvas boards — and fills orders for custom works.

But Young aspires for much more. He dreams of the type of recognition and success that Andy Warhol had. And he’s doing all he can to get it.

Around the time of his 2000 exhibit, people began comparing Young’s work to Warhol’s. Before that time, Young did not know who Warhol was. So he researched Warhol’s work and life, and the result has contributed not only to some of the pieces hanging in his gallery now, titled “The Ghost of Andy Warhol,” but also to Young’s vision of art and goals for the future.

Young’s “Ghost” installation, nine 3-dimensional (canvas board and acrylic board) 12-by-15-inch panels add up to an eerie image of the pop-art legend. Both layers bear the man’s likeness, but the bottom one is broken into facets of color and the top one is clear except for the engraving of the portrait which casts shadows on the one below it and on the wall, making portions of the composition fade in and out of view. Young prefers this technique because the shadows automatically create secondary color, and because it makes painting more like sculpture, inviting the viewer to notice that the view changes as your position changes in relation to the work.

In addition, Young’s work titled “Portraits of the Alphabet,” which features 26 portraits of his friends, acquaintances, and some strangers, is an Andy Warhol idea in reverse. Warhol was famous for making paintings and silk-screen prints of celebrities. Young uses ordinary people who he hopes, when he becomes famous like Warhol, will become like Warhol’s celebrity icons.

“Warhol used celebrities, and he sold many paintings,” Young said. “So I said to myself, I have to create my own icons.”

But it’s not just Warhol’s image and way of painting brightly colored iconographic works that Young has been drawn to. He wants people to feel about art now as they felt about it then, and in doing so, he hopes to gain Warhol-like identification.

“I want to bring back the sensation of when people were talking about art,” Young said. “When Warhol was alive, people were talking about art.”

So Young is on a quest to increase his visibility. Though he has four new works in the making, Young spends much of his free time contacting various media outlets, submitting work for an upcoming exhibition in New York City, and even doing things as small as handing out fliers in front of his studio.

“This morning I was dressed up like the ghost of Andy Warhol handing out fliers,” he said. “It was really cold this morning, but things like that can help.”

He gave out about 200 fliers in hopes of getting more people to come see his work.

Young feels that once people see his work, they will understand that he is going somewhere, and the exposure will help skyrocket his career. Currently, Young sells a custom work for about $1,500. He noted that, because of the low price, now is the time for people to invest in his work, because once he’s famous, the prices are going to leap.

“By the time I hit New York and come back, it’s not gonna be $1,500 a piece,” he said, mentioning figures ranging from one-half to one million dollars.

His excitement and confidence about his work is contagious. Standing in his brightly lit gallery while Young vigorously shakes your hand and teaches you about his art, you can’t help but get the feeling that he just might be going somewhere. Certainly, he’s not waiting around for fame to come knocking on his door. Young is doing everything that he can to make his dream a reality.

Young said, “I mean, if Andy Warhol could make it, why not me?”