Samson Young

Born in Hong Kong in 1979, Samson Young received his BA in music, philosophy, and gender studies at the University of Sydney before obtaining an MPhil from the University of Hong Kong in 2007 and a PhD in music composition from Princeton University, New Jersey, in 2013. His compositions, drawings, installations, radio broadcasts, and performances touch upon topics such as military conflict, identity, migration, and political frontiers past and present. Sound and its cultural politics are at the heart of a practice that interlays multiple narratives and references. Young has had solo exhibitions at Goethe-Institute, Hong Kong (2013); Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art (2015); and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf (2016). His Songs for Disaster Relief was presented at the Venice Biennale (2017). Select group exhibitions include Innovationist: The Spectacular Journey of New Media Art, Taipei Contemporary Art Museum (2013); The Wizard’s Chamber, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Switzerland (2013); A Journal of the Plague Year, Para Site Art Space, Hong Kong (2013); 48HR Incident, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney (2015); Retrograde, Logan Center Gallery, University of Chicago (2016); Documenta, Athens, Greece, and Kassel, Germany (2017); and One Hand Clapping, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2018). Young was a recipient of the Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award in 2007, and the BMW Art Journey award in 2015. He lives and works in Hong Kong and maintains an active practice in classical music composition.