Russell Young

Russell Young, (b. 1959) is a British-American artist best known for examining cultural icons, the nature of fame, and the American Dream through his large-scale silkscreens. His earliest breakthrough was his photography of George Michael for the sleeve of the album Faith in 1987. Young photographed many music stars throughout the 1970s and 1980s, including Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, REM, The Smiths, Diana Ross, and many others. He went on to shoot over 100 music videos during MTV’s height in the 1990s, which brought him to the United States.

Young eventually moved to California, where he began his current practice with his sold-out show Pig Portraits in Los Angeles in 2003. The many series that have followed demonstrate his visceral, analog processes and signature use of diamond dust. He has exhibited across the world, including museum exhibitions at the Modern Art Museum Shanghai, Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, Polk Museum of Art, and the Goss-Michael Foundation.

Young’s work is included in many prominent private and institutional collections including those of Barack Obama, David Bowie, Drake, Angelina Jolie, David Hockney, Brad Pitt, and others, as well as The Getty Collection (Los Angeles) and The White House Collection (Washington, D.C.).

Russell Young’s works have crossed the auction block at all the world’s major auction houses, including Sotheby’s, Christie’s, and Phillips.