EXHIBITIONS

Represented by Philip Bacon Galleries, Sophie Gannon Gallery and Olsen Gallery, Young has exhibited consistently since graduating from the National Art School, Sydney, in 2012.

Her exhibitions, spanning Australia and international contexts including Los Angeles, Thailand and Thredbo Resort, trace a practice grounded in painting’s capacity to return to and rework familiar subjects.

Across these presentations, Young’s works build a cumulative language, each exhibition extending the last, while her inclusion in major national awards and shortlistings sits alongside this ongoing, iterative approach.

  • Something for Margaret

    OLSEN GALLERY

    2026

    “I often look to cinema when constructing a body of work. In film, we are rarely watching only the characters; we are absorbing the vignettes of their lives — the landscapes they inhabit, the quiet details, the rhythm created through repetition and scale. Directors use framing, pacing and shifts in size to give a story its pulse.”

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    Painting of two black oval masks with golden chains, surrounded by objects including a brush, a box, and two round objects, on a textured white background.

  • Laissez Faire + The Witzig Archive

    SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY

    2025

    Zoe Young’s recent body of work grew from a self-imposed “camera detox.” Determined to paint only from life, she set herself the task of seeing without mediation; of unlearning the instant, image-ready habits rewarded by the capitalist attention economy of the present. What began as an act of discipline became a meditation on perception, temporality and the quiet structures of daily life.

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    Painting of a bowl containing a sliced apple, a whole fig, and a whole apple, surrounded by green leaves, with a patterned cloth underneath.

  • The Sentimental Bloke

    MELBOURNE ART FAIR

    2025

    Zoe Young’s exhibition, The Sentimental Bloke, derives from Vollmann’s novel, and the obscurity of her titling becomes clear through the artists search for ideals that don't, and perhaps never existed, through heavy-leaning into the rich genre of still life in all its multitudinal forms and meanings. Both Jimmy and Young debase, devour and possess their subjects in an attempt to reach something unknown, unreal, pure yet totally unattainable.

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    A rustic outdoor breakfast setup on a wooden table with a view of a lake and wooded shoreline, under a wooden roof. The table has bowls, plates, a tea kettle, a cup, and newspapers, with foliage nearby.

  • Field Notes

    PHILLIP BACON GALLERIES

    2025

    A small salon show of studies from life exploring the everyday world of the artist.

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    Oil painting of a cloudy, overcast landscape with mountains, trees, and a winding road in the foreground.

  • The Alpine Way

    SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY

    2024

    Blending personal history and collective memory, Young’s work spans four generations of her family. Through a series of figurative, still life, and landscape paintings, she collages time and place, distilling folklore, family rituals, and village life.

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    A snowy scene with two black houses, one with an attic and a balcony, surrounded by snow-covered trees and bushes. There are three people in winter clothing in the foreground, and a 'Room for Rent' sign in front of the houses.

  • The Long Weekend

    SOPHIE GANNON GALLERY

    2024

    The long weekend embodies a yearning for anticipation, tradition, and even a temporary escape from the ordinary – a fleeting yet cherished interlude amidst the ebb and flow of life's rhythms.

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    A still life painting of sliced grapefruits, limes, and small green fruits, possibly apricots, arranged on a light-colored background with visible brush strokes.