general — H Spencer Young

H Spencer Young (b. Cleveland, Ohio, BA Visual Media, Minor: Cinema Studies, The American University) is an interdisciplinary artist and writer/director with a self-driven research practice, concerned with a wide array of formal and post-conceptual challenges. He is based on New York City’s Lower East Side.

Autumn, 2023 Spencer’s essay on Marcel Duchamp’s 1963 retrospective at the Norton Simon Museum was published by Pasadena Magazine. Editor: Malina Saval.

Winter 2022, Spencer exhibited at Art Basel | Miami Beach, Untitled Art, with Beverly’s, curated by Leah Dixon.

Summer, 2022, Spencer’s work was seen on the front page of the New York Times Arts section review of “The Patriot,” a group show at O’Flaherty’s, curated by Jamian Juliano-Villani and Billy Grant.

Winter, 2021 Spencer exhibited at Art Basel | Miami Beach in the Gallery Sector of Satellite Art Fair, curated by Brian Andrew Whiteley.

Winter/Spring 2020 Spencer’s work “Memories of the Future, 2020” was exhibited as part of Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit’s (MOCAD) Rapid Response group show, curated by Wayne Northcross.

In 2018, Spencer directed the official music video for Joan as Police Woman’s “Warning Bell,” from her recent album, Damned Devotion, which was featured in The Atlantic.

Spencer edited and sound designed Rashid Johnson’s “Samuel in Space,” for Ballroom Marfa. “Samuel in Space” was acquired by Detroit Institute of Arts’ permanent collection and has exhibited at Hauser and Wirth, the McNay Art Museum, the National Gallery of Canada, and Museum of Contemporary Art Denver.

As an undergraduate, Spencer was sponsored by Czech author and screenwriter Arnost Lustig to attend the Czech National Film School (FAMU) in Prague, directing track. Additionally, during undergraduate studies, Spencer was one of 13 students from across the United States selected by presidential historian and author Dr. Douglas Brinkley for The Majic Bus, a twice-run collegiate experiential learning program. The Majic Bus traveled to 44 states, on the first-ever natural gas powered bus, studying Geography of the American Civil Rights Struggle, American Intellectual History, American Road Literature’ and American Social history. What set this program apart was being in the precise location where history occured. For example: walking through Little Rock Central High with Melba Patillo Beals, and studying Kurt Vonnegut’s “Breakfast of Champions,” in Kurt Vonnegut’s kitchen, over lunch. (Not breakfast, which would have been the better choice.)

Summer, 2019 and Spring 2021, Spencer’s works Inversion #14, 2017 and Foundations, 2014 were auctioned on Paddle8.com and Capsule Auctions, respectively, to benefit the Center for Art Law in New York, curated by Louise Carron.

In 2019, an image of Spencer’s was selected for Simultaneous Soloists, a publication on the work of Anthony McCall from Pioneer Press, New York.

Winter 2022, for the 6th year in a row, Spencer’s work was available in a small edition to benefit Carriage Trade, New York, curated by Peter Scott.

Spencer’s work was recently included in Small Works at Abattoir Gallery, Cleveland, curated by Lisa Kurzner and Rose Burlingham, as well as in their group show, Landscape, Cityscape, from December, 2022 through February, 2023.

Artists Spencer has shown with include Azikiwe Mohammed, Spencer Tunick, Spencer Sweeney, Lumin Wakoa, Alexandra Hammond, Lauren Yeager, Sonia Louise Davis, Kevin Kearns, Hildur Jonsson, Dave Schubert, Bert Stern, Jack Henry, Trudy Benson, Sean Lennon, Dan Loxton, Dana Oldfather, Carlos Rosales-Silva, Fred Gutzeit, Ricky Powell, Jennifer McDermott, Carmen Winant, EJ McAdams, Tracy Emin, Dash Snow, Tom Smith, Julia Colavita, Jeff Preiss, Gianna Commito, Gwenn Thomas, Jonathan Rosen, Jeffrey Tranchell, Erykah Townsend, R.H. Quaytman, Scott Reeder and many others.

Spencer’s visionary experimental film for fashion house Honor, featuring Xiao Wen Ju, Josephine Skriver, and Anne-Sophie Monrad, was premiered by W Magazine, featuring a soundtrack by Here We Go Magic.

In 2013, Spencer co-concepted the foundational branding for Juice Press with founder Marcus Antebi, starting with their first and only location, going on to create their every film and photograph, for all stores and social, billboard ads, in-store films, postcards, phone booth ads, etc. which became the voice and visual language of the brand, from 1 store locally to 80 nationally. The flagship location on Greenwich avenue, nearly the size of an entire city block, still features Spencer’s large scale photographs across the entire block of windows, 12 years later.

In January, 2016, Spencer was selected to exhibit and speak on his work at the New York Public Library's "Librarian's Choice," curated by Fred Gutzeit.

September - October of 2016, Spencer exhibited in "Sensing Place" at Chris Davison Gallery, Newburgh, New York, curated by Chris Davison and Kevin Kearns.

Spencer’s artwork has raised thousands of dollars to benefit emerging artist grants, not-for-profit galleries, and organizations providing resources to the art world as a whole.

Additional highlights:

Spencer has written and directed numerous commissioned films, commercials, political documentaries and music videos, which have been featured in W Magazine, The Atlantic, The Guardian, Brooklyn Vegan, Fact Magazine, New York Times, Zoe Report, Bloomberg, and film festivals nationwide.

In 2005 Spencer was a story consultant and editor on “Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis,” the notorious documentary on Jack Smith, directed by Mary Jordan, produced by Richard Prince and Kenneth Wayne Peralta, voted one of the 10 best movies of 2006 by Entertainment Weekly Magazine.

Spencer directed, produced and wrote the feature documentary "Swing State" with Jason Zone Fisher and John Intrater which provided an inside look at the 2006 Ohio Governor’s race. The film captured the Democrats’ sweep of Ohio which set up President Barack Obama’s White House victory in 2008. The story is told across Ohio through the eyes of a family, which gave a unique look at the political life. “Swing State” holds the current one-day attendance record at the Cleveland International Film Festival and premiered in 2 adjacent sold-out theaters on opening night to standing ovations.

Finally, Spencer’s artwork has been direct inspiration for couture fashion, seen in multiple seasons on the runways of New York Fashion Week, particularly as the inspiration for most of fashion house Honor’s output in 2013, though without credit. This in addition to the Emmys red carpet, at which the most talked about dress in 2013, worn by Zosia Mamet, was based on Spencer’s work, The New Sky, 2012, though without credit.

If you’re still reading and wondering . . . “wtf is a Majic Bus?!?” The Majic Bus (this will be back online at a future date) traveled to 44 U.S. states with the aim of learning American history where it precisely occured. Time was spent studying with, and getting to know, usually at their homes, icons such as Kurt Vonnegut, Melba Pattillo Beals, Hunter S. Thompson, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Bo Diddley, Townes Van Zandt, Toni Morrison, Arthur Miller, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Rita Dove, The Sampas/Kerouac family, Arthur Schlessinger Jr., Ramblin' Jack Elliot, William Kunstler, Alice Brock, Ed Asner, William vanden Heuvel, Hubert Selby, Jr., Robert Hunter, Steven Soderbergh, Kerry Kennedy, Allen Ginsberg, Jim Carroll, Steven Ambrose, Jimmy and Roslyn Carter, Chris Felver, T. Boone Pickens, William Kennedy, Chuck Berry, Waylon Jennings, Liz Gilbert, Hamilton Jordan, Larry Woiwode, John Kenneth Galbraith, Kinky Friedman, Tom McGuane and many others. Standout memories: restoring Bill Clinton’s boyhood home in Hope, AR, walking Lowell, MA (one on one) with Allen Ginsberg, hanging out with Hunter S. Thompson in his kitchen discussing “Hell’s Angels,” reading and having discussions with Toni Morrison, having time with Townes Van Zandt at the Maple Leaf in New Orleans, privately touring Little Rock Central High with Melba Patillo Beals. It was, obviously, bananas.

NEWS

2024

Activision, 2022 included in (UU)ater :: Exhibition, Tuxford Gallery, Eureka, CA. Curators: Ian Breidenbach, Adam

Project site: http://utopianmegaproject.com/UUater_Exhibition.html Farcus.
Press: https://www.times-standard.com/2024/01/26/new-exhibit-opens-at-tuxford-gallery/
https://lostcoastoutpost.com/lowdown/events/uuater-exhibition-at-brenda-tuxford-gallery/

Returning mentor, MFA film program, American University, School of Communication

Returning teaching artist in visual art, filmmaking, painting, photography. Manhattan Youth. New York, NY

Activision, 2022 featured in UUater (Zine), Utopian Megapraxis Project, Curators: Ian Breidenbach, Adam Farcus

2023

Returning mentor, MFA film program, American University, School of Communication

Returning teaching artist in visual art, filmmaking, painting, photography. Manhattan Youth. New York, NY

Essay on Marchel Duchamp and the Norton Simon Museum published by Pasadena Magazine. Editor: Malina Saval

2022

Cool Cleveland: Landscape/Cityscape at Abattoir Gallery

Art Basel | Miami, Untitled Art Fair, Beverly’s, curated by Leah Dixon, exhibiting with Marie Anine Moller, Julia Colavita, Sonia Louise Davis, Leah Dixon, Ivan Forde, Alex Hammond, Jack Henry, Chris Herity, Hayley Martell, Azikiwe Mohammed, Heidi Norton, Stina Puotinen, Carlos Rosales-silva, H Spencer Young.

Interviewed for “Media in the Mix” podcast, American University, School of Communication, 12/22

Artforum, Landscape/Cityscape

Social Photography X, Carriage Trade, Group Show, Online Preview 11/23

“Samuel in Space” a film by Rashid Johnson, edited by H Spencer Young, acquired by Detroit Institute of the Arts

Interlocutor, a two-person exhibition by Jennifer McDermott and H Spencer Young. Curated by Clifford Owens. Art Club, New York.

ecoartspace, Drought, 2022, 11h x 22w ft. billboard, by EJ McAdams w/H Spencer Young, North Adams, MA. Curator: Patricia Lea Watts.

Group show, Spirit of Peace II, opens at ROOT Hotels Karaköy, Instanbul, Turkey. Curator: Pinar Goodstone
Returning mentor, The American University, School of Communication, Visual Media track

New York Times: “Divine Excess on Avenue C”

ecoartspace, Drought, 2022, 11h x 22w ft. billboard, by EJ McAdams w/H Spencer Young now live in Brooklyn, NY. Curator: Patricia Lea Watts.

Selected finalist, ecoartspace’s I AM WATER billboard project; billboards to be presented in Massachusetts (August, 2022) and New York (September, 2022) (Illustrator / collaborator for EJ McAdams’ ‘DROUGHT, 2022’, Digital, 22h x 11w feet). Curator: Patricia Lea Watts.

New York Times: The Patriot / Oflaherty’s “Was this the Art Party of the Summer?”

Cultured Magazine, “New York Gallery O’Flaherty’s Packed the Street—and the Walls—for "The Patriot" Opening”

The Patriot, Group Show, O’Flaherty’s, New York, NY. Curator: Jamian Juliano-Villani, Billy Grant

Finalist, ecoartspace’s I AM WATER; Illustrator / collaborator for EJ McAdams’ Drought, 2022, Digital, 22h x 11w feet

2021

Art Basel, Satellite Art Fair, Miami, Fla., Curator: Brian Whiteley

Social Photography IX catalog published, Carriage Trade, New York. Curator: Peter Scott

Teaching Artist: Visual Art, Painting, Photography, Digital Art, Manhattan Youth, New York, NY

Indexularity, 2014 acquired by Farzin Fardin Fard (3F) collection. More info: Daily Mail

Social Photography IX, Carriage Trade, New York, NY, Curator: Peter Scott

“Samuel in Space” a film by Rashid Johnson, edited by H Spencer Young, exhibited in “The Art of Rashid Johnson: An Effective Delivery System and Tool for Change,” The National Gallery of Canada

Invited to Foundation NFT platform

Center for Art Law, 2021 Benefit Auction, Capsule Auctions, Curator: Louise Carron

Small Works, Group Show, Abattoir Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, Curators: Lisa Kurzner, Rose Burlingham

Mentor, The American University, School of Communication, Visual Media track

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Rapid Response Group Show, Detroit, MI, Curator: Wayne Northcross

2020

Small Works, Group Show, Abattoir Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio, Curators: Lisa Kurzner, Rose Burlingham

Artforum Must See: Social Photography VIII, Group Show, Carriage Trade, New York, NY

Artsy: Social Photography VIII, Carriage Trade, New York, NY

Teaching Artist, Visual Art, Manhattan Youth, East Side Middle School, New York, NY

Social Photography VIII, Carriage Trade, New York, NY, Curator: Peter Scott

Group show, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Detroit, MI

Teaching Artist, Manhattan Youth, Painting, Digital Art, Photography, New York, NY

Image featured by The Lo Down, New York, NY

2019

Social Photography VII Book announced, Carriage Trade, New York, NY https://carriage-trade-ny.myshopify.com, New York, NY

Group Show, District Gallery, (Inaugural show), Cleveland, Ohio

Image selected for Simultaneous Soloists, a publication on the work of Anthony McCall. Pioneer Press, New York, NY. Additonal info: Artbook.com

Group Show, Carriage Trade, Social Photography VII, Lower East Side, New York; Prints are available in editions of ten in a first come first served basis: Link

Benefit auction, Center for Art Law. Taylor | Graham Gallery & Paddle8, New York, NY (The auction has ended.)
Guest Contributor, WFMU’s Rancho Thatchmo Radio Show, (WGXC, WFMU) Host: Thatcher Keats, New York, NY

Joan as Police Woman, “Warning Bell [Official Music video]” featured in The Atlantic.

Guest Lecturer, “The Imagemaker,” Hawken School, Gates Mills, OH

Teaching Artist, Manhattan Youth, Painting, Digital Art, Photography, New York, NY

2018

Music video for Joan as Police Woman featured in The Guardian
Group Show, Galerie Richard, Rema Hort Mann Foundation, New York, NY

Guest Contributor, WFMU’s Rancho Thatchmo Radio Show, (WGXC, WFMU) Host: Thatcher Keats, New York, NY.Archive link.

Teaching Artist, Manhattan Youth, Digital Art, Photography, New York, NY

Carriage Trade, Group Show, Social Photography VI, Extended through September 23, 2018, New York, NY

Goup Show, Carriage Trade, Gallery, Social Photography V, Lower East Side, New York, NY

Teaching Artist, Filmmaking Intensive, Manhattan Youth, New York, NY

Guest Contributor, WFMU’s Rancho Thatchmo Show, (WGXC, WFMU) Host: Thatcher Keats, New York, NY

Teaching Artist, Filmmaking Intensive, Manhattan Youth, New York, NY

Work featured in The Lo Down, New York, NY

Images featured by Henry Street Settlement across socials

2017

Director, Official Music Video: Joan As Police Woman, "Warning Bell"

Film for Juice Press featured on Fox News Business

Images featured by The Lo Down, Lower East Side, NY

2016

Writer/Director: Global brand film, Hudson’s Bay Company, “Adventurers of Hudson’s Bay”

Guest Lecturer, Color Photography, Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, NY

2014

Invited to shoot private family and survivor preview of National September 11 Memorial & Museum, Battery Park, New York, NY

Profiled in, "The Lo Down: My LES." Lower East Side, New York, NY

“Samuel in Space” a film by Rashid Johnson, edited by H Spencer Young, exhibited in Rashid Johnson: New Growth, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver.

Commission: Henry Street Settlement 2013 Annual Report report cover. Lower East Side, New York, NY

2013

Global collaboration with Ram Dass

New York Times: Downtown Brooklyn / Ft. Greene Local features Spencer's photographs

Guest Lecturer, The Ghetto Film School, Harlem, New York

“Samuel in Space” a film by Rashid Johnson, edited by H Spencer Young, exhibited in Rashid Johnson, The Gathering, Hauser and Wirth, Zürich

2012

Editor / Sound Designer, "Samuel in Space‚” Director: Rashid Johnson, Commission for Ballroom Marfa, DP: Rod Lamborn. Exhibited at Ballroom Marfa.

Commission for Juice Press; Directed and shot brand film which played in 65 store locations for 7 years, as well as vehicle wraps, foundational social media and in-store large format displays (still on display on Greenwich Avenue in 2023), New York, New York

New York Times: Downtown Brooklyn / Ft. Greene Local features Spencer's photographs
Director of Photography: Mykki Blanco, "Head is a Stone.” Director: Nick Hooker. Editor: Sloane Klevin.

Writer/Director/Producer: Honor Spring 2012 Collection & Runway Film. Premiered by W Magazine

Orchard Street, Rainy Morning" photograph featured all month on the City of New York homepage.

2010

New York Times cover story.

2009

New York Times, Downtown Brooklyn / Ft. Greene Local features Spencer's photographs for 18 months.

Blackbook Magazine features 3 images accompanying Steve Lewis’ column.

2006 – 2008

• Writer/Director: "Swing State," feature documentary, World premiere: Cleveland International Film Festival, Set standing one-day attendance record (CIFF), Distributor: Morningstar Entertainment, Netflix, SnagFilm

2005

• Story Advisor: "Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis" Director: Mary Jordan, Producer: Kenneth Peralta, World Premiere: Tribeca Film Festival‚ Entertainment Weekly, 10 best films of 2006

2004

• Visual designer, Amfibian, Experimental rock band led by Phish songwriter Tom Marshall, Interactive site specific digital projection art. Knitting Factory, New York, & B.B. King's, New York.

2001

• Founded first-ever Final Cut Pro-based creative production studio.

1998

• 1st place: Logo competition, Amfibian, (led by Phish songwriter, Tom Marshall)

1996

• 1st place, American Visions Film Festival (undergraduate & graduate entrants), “Passage,” 16mm sync-sound narrative short, adapted from an award winning short story by H Spencer Young. Screenplay by H Spencer Young. Directed by H Spencer Young.

H SPENCER YOUNG

Subscribe