Megan Young is a transdisciplinary artist underscoring all that is human across technological ecosystems. She explores the rules, codes, and presets of our social and cultural spheres while crafting more humane dwelling places. Her ongoing research into technology as ancestry unfolds through interactive installations, experimental videos, AR/VR design, and immersive performance.
Young’s socially engaged projects and curation have earned critical acclaim through features in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Hyperallergic, and on National Public Radio (NPR). Exhibition credits include commissions for the Armenia Art Fair, ISEA (Hong Kong), Open Engagement (Chicago), Art Souterrain (Montreal), SPACES (Cleveland), Chicago Cultural Center, and the Ammerman Center Biennial Symposium on Arts & Technology. Recognition includes a Knight Foundation technology grant, CEC ArtsLink Art Prospect Residency, and two Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards.
Young holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Art + Media from Columbia College Chicago; BFA in Dance Composition from Ohio University.
Select Exhibitions
- 2024: With What?, MOCO Exhibition at Parnassos Cultural Center, Utrecht, Netherlands
- 2024: In Touch (curation), Ohio Arts Center Riffe Gallery
- 2024: In Touch (curation), Medici Art Museum
- 2023: Resilience, Designing Interactive Systems Exhibition at Carnegie Mellon University
- 2023: Lineages of Birth, Mellon Foundation funded partnership with the Kinsey Institute
- 2023: With What We Could Carry, Humankind Series at Manierre Dawson Gallery
- 2022: Sign Stealing, Armenia Art Fair: Open Space Platform
- 2022: Bound, Ann Arbor Film Festival: Off the Screen!
- 2021: Coming Suddenly, Passing Strangely, SPACES+Columbia College Chicago
- 2020: A Public Trust, SPACES
- 2019: Past Due, Zygote Press
- 2018: And Me in My Place, Art Souterrain
- 2018: Longest Walk, Ohio University Gallery
- 2017: Scores for Distributed Dancing, Columbus College of Art & Design
- 2018: Nuclear Winter, Ammerman Center for Arts & Technology
- 2017: Cloud of Whiteness, SPACES
- 2016: Scores for Distributed Dancing, ISEA Re>evolution
- 2016: Longest Walk, Glass Curtain Gallery
- 2015: Breakwall, SiTE:Lab Rumsey Street Project
Awards + Honors
- 2024: Indiana University – AI Fellowship
- 2022: Knight Foundation – Tech Capacity Grant
- 2021: CEC ArtsLink – Art Prospect Residency
- 2021: MOCO – SloMoCo Microresidency
- 2019, 2020, 2021: Ohio Arts Council – Arts Next Grants
- 2016, 2018: Ohio Arts Council – Individual Artist Excellence Awards
- 2018: Chicago DanceMakers Forum – Greenhouse Grant + Commission
- 2016: Cuyahoga Arts & Culture [CPAC – Creative Workforce Fellowship
- 2016: Citizen University – Joy of Voting Commission
- 2013, 2015: City of Chicago DCASE – Residency + Commissions
Press
- What is a Feminist Social Practice? Kerry Cardoza, New City
- Feminist Social Practice: A Manifesto, Neysa Page-Lieberman + Melissa Hilliard Potter, ASAP/Journal
- Art and Body Politics at the Republican National Convention, Diana Sette, Hyperallergic
- Returning the Joy to Voting, David Giffels, The Atlantic
- Body Group, Jesse Hewit, SFMOMA OpenSpace
- With Regard to Cleveland, Bean Gilsdorf, SFMOMA OpenSpace
- Reflections on Megan Young’s Cloud of Whiteness, Katherine Cooper, Women & Performance Journal
- SPACES Doles Out More Emergency Relief, Shawn Mishak, Cleveland Scene
- Next Level Nostalgia, Tesh Ekman, Pressure Magazine
- In Response to Rampant Mass Shootings, Artists Offer a Visceral Reality, Sarah Rose Sharp, Hyperallergic