general — H Spencer Young

H Spencer Young (b. Cleveland, Ohio) is an artist and writer/director based on New York’s Lower East Side, with an interdisciplinary, self-driven, research-based practice.

Concerned with a wide array of formal and post-conceptual challenges, Spencer’s practice is oriented around subverting and interrogating the conceptual and historical norms of image and object making.

Spencer has a Bachelors degree in Visual Media with a minor in Cinema Studies from The American University in Washington, D.C..

Winter 2022, Spencer exhibited the triptych Montage, 2021 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 also edited and sound designed Rashid Johnson’s “Samuel in Space,” for Ballroom Marfa.

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 in 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 Spencer Tunick, Spencer Sweeney, Bert Stern, Alexandra Hammond, Dave Schubert, Jack Henry, Trudy Benson, Sean Lennon, Dan Loxton, Carlos Rosales-Silva, Fred Gutzeit, Lauren Yeager, Sonia Louise Davis, Kevin Kearns, Hildur Jonsson, 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 more.

Spencer’s visionary experimental film for fashion house Honor, featuring Xiao Wen Ju, Josephine Skriver, and Anne-Sophie Monrad, was premiered by W Magazine, with 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, 9 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 was sponsored by Czech author and screenwriter Arnost Lustig to attend the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze/FAMU).

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 44 states, during which the students studied Geography of the American Civil Rights Struggle, American Intellectual History, American Road Literature, and American Social history, where it precisely happened.

Spencer has written and directed numerous commissioned films, commercials, political documentaries and music videos, which have been featured in W Magazine, The Atlantic, 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 and thrilling documentary on the one, the ONLY, 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” set the 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 comprised of Spencer’s work, The New Sky, 2012 though without credit.

If you’re still reading and wondering . . . “wth 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.

2023

• Returning mentor, American University, School of Communication, visual media/film, undergraduate and graduate programs

2022

• Cool Cleveland: Landscape/Cityscape at Abattoir Gallery

• Art Basel | Miami, Untitled Art Fair, with 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

• Interlocutor, a two-person exhibition featuring photographs, collages and a performance-installation by artists 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 now live in North Adams, MA. Curator: Patricia Lea Watts.

• Group show, Spirit of Peace II, opens at ROOT Hotels Karaköy, Instanbul, 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: “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, Gallery Sector, 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

• 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 track2020

• Rapid Response Group Show, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, 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

• 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 Radio 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

2017

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

• Film for Juice Press featured on Fox News Business

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

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

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

• 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

2012

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

• Commission for Juice Press; Directed and shot brand film currently playing in 65 store locations, as well as vehicle wraps, social media and in-store large format displays, 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

• Photographs of the Gowanus Canal featured in the New York Times cover story.

2009

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

• Blackbook Magazine features 3 images accompanying Steve Lewis’ column.

2007 – 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

2006

• 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

• Interactive site specific digital proejction art for Amfibian, Experimental rock band led by Phish songwriter Tom Marshall, featuring original arrangements of Phish songs. 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, (Phish songwriter Tom Marshall’s band), featuring original arrangements of Phish songs + orginals.

1996

• Undergraduate narrative thesis short film, “Passage,” adapted from an original award-winning short story, wins American Visions Film Festival (undergraduate & graduate entrants.)

H SPENCER YOUNG STUDIO