About

Gordon Young is one of the UK’s leading artists in the field of public art. With over 20 years experience he has created projects as diverse as a series of 20m sculptural/climbing walls in Blackpool, a forest of typographic trees in Crawley Library, a Wall of Wishes in a Bristol school, and a cursing stone in Carlisle.

Gordon’s latest and most ambitious project to date is the Comedy Carpet, an 1,880m2 granite typographical pavement made up of jokes, songs and catchphrases of comedians and writers which will be permanently installed on the new promenade in front of Blackpool Tower.

Gordon has a collaborative approach to working and has built up over the years strong and fruitful relationships with a diverse range of people from architects, landscape architects, graphic designers and engineers to foresters, cyclists, librarians, ornithologists, historians and code breakers.

Public art is not only about ideas and concepts, it is also about delivering on time, in budget and of the highest quality. Gordon has a close and committed team of artists and producers and together they have a proven track record in realising ambitious projects of the highest quality within given timescales and budgets.

Contact

info@gordonyoung.net

Links

Why Not Associates
PACE
Stanton Williams Architects
Feilden Clegg Bradley Architects
Wilkinson Eyre Architects
Speirs and Major Associates
Whitelaw Turkington
LDA Design
Penoyre & Prasad
Ronnie Heeps
Chris Levine
David Kemp
Owen Cunningham
7 Stanes
Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Awards

— Blackpool Civic Trust; merit award for Climbing Towers & Bouldering Wall, 2007

— Language stone award, 2006

— ‘Grand Prix’, Tokyo Type Directors, (First Prize) for Flock of Words, Morecambe, 2003

— Art for Architecture Award, Royal Society of Arts, 2001

— Civic Trust Commendation and Street Design Award for Eric Area, Morecambe, 2000

— Civic Trust Commendation, 1998

— Street Design Award, Royal Town Planning Institute, 1998
for Loudoun Hall Forecourt.

— Museum of the Year Award with Jersey Heritage Trust For Maritime Museum Jersey, 1998

— Lancaster Civic Society for Stone Jetty, Morecambe, 1996

— Working for Cities Award, British Gas Properties / Arts Council, 1995

— Art for Architecture Award, Royal Society of Arts for Tern Morecambe, 1994

— Hull Civic Society Commendation for Fish Pavement, 1993

— Art in Public Spaces, Northern Electric / Arts Council for Gateshead 1993

 

Selected Talks

– The School of Architecture, University of Naples, The theatre in the city seminar, 2010

– University College of Falmouth, 2010

– Central St Martins, M.A Narrative Environment, 2010

— Key Speaker, The Angel Symposium: the effect of public art on regional culture, economy and politics (part of Angel of the North 10th anniversary celebrations), Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 2009

— Key speaker, City and Art Forum, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, 2009

— Longley Park Sixth Form College, Firth Park, Sheffield, 2009

— Central St Martins College of Art and Design, London, 2008

— Poets In The City, German Gym, Kings Cross, London, 2007

— University for the Creative Arts, Epsom, 2007

— Brunel Academy, Bristol, 2007

— Royal Society of Architects in Wales, annual conference, Cardiff, 2006

— Littlehampton Community School, West Sussex, 2006

Selected Articles

2009
— Creative Review, March
— M.E. magazine. Milan, September
– Artlab, Milan, September

2008
— Letter Arts Review, USA Spring
— Summit: 49, British Mountaineering Council, Spring

2007
— Landscape magazine, February
— Creative Review, May
— Wallpaper, August
— iSh magazine, Singapore
— Concept magazine, Jakarta

2006
— Creative Review, April
— Touchstone, September
— Etapes: international, September

2005
— Creative Review, May
— Disegno Industriale, October

2003
— Creative Review, April
— Domus, December
— Art and Architecture, issue no 59

2002
— Eye magazine, Autumn
— Creative Review, September

2000
— Crafts magazine, January
— Motorcaravan, Motorhome Monthly, August
— Livewire, August
— Druk, Netherlands, Autumn

 

Selected Publications

— Art and Text, Black Dog Publishing, 2009

— City and Art Project, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, 2009

— Creative Island 2 by John Sorrell, Laurence King Publishing, 2009

— Typo: the beautiful world of fonts by Fabiola Reyes, published by Monsa, 2007

— Exploring Border Reivers by P Nixon, 2007

— England in Particular, [a celebration of the commonplace, the local, the vernacular and the distinctive] by Sue Clifford & Angela King, published by hodder & stoughton, 2006

— Artists and Public Space, Black Dog Publishing, 2005

— Why Not 2 published by Thames and Hudson, 2004

— People Making Places: Imagination in the Public Realm, published by Public Arts, 2004

— Tokyo Type Director’s Annual, 2003

— Art, Space and the City by Malcolm Miles, published by Routledge, 1997

— Celebrating Local Distinctiveness, Common Ground for Rural Action, 1994