Coen Young

A cornerstone of New York’s cultural landscape since its founding in 1994, The Armory Show brings the world’s leading international contemporary and modern art galleries to New York each year.
 
For the 2024 edition, 1301SW makes its debut with a solo presentation of the Sydney-based artist Coen Young. An acclaimed artist with a truly distinctive practice grounded in painting, Young’s alchemist-like use of materials and techniques sees his densely layered works extend label, form and narrative.
 
Young’s ongoing, singular mirror paintings have a rich reflective surface created through a unique process akin to early photography, where silver nitrate is layered over the support which has undergone a labour-intensive process of push-and-pull with medium and gesture. The result establishes a playfully fragile equilibrium between the object and its environment. A suite of monumental, dimensionally-identical works, this presentation places the audience in a state that is complex and confusing, alluring and captivating.