Sally Young

Since 1980, lower Manhattan has been part of my vision, its landscape now juxtaposed with the landscape before we were Manhattan. What was "Mannahatta", in the language of the Lenape, "land of many hills", are now buildings, water towers, fire escapes, and ladders rising to the top or descending to places that are below sea level. Walls of partially demolished buildings, reminiscent of the lower east side, expose skeletons via stairways and rooms. In the land that was once salt marshes, ponds, hills, and later farms…crane images appear, once blatant and shocking statements of our city now easily blend with our current landscape becoming as one with the remaining buildings. Below stairs lead to the underground city, walls cracking, then rise to a place that could vanish just as the hills and the meadows did. Massive stone foundations built on the flat earth grow taller as if to reach the sky and erase the heights of nature that preceded it.

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%22Cooper Square Looking North%22 41%22X55%22 Oil on Canvas. October 2013.jpg

"Cooper Square Looking North" 41"X55" Oil on Canvas. October 2013

%22Untitled%22 28%22X22%22 Oil on Canvas October 2013.jpg

"Untitled" 28"X22" Oil on Canvas October 2013

Untitled 2008. Oil, acyrlic, and silkscreen on canvas

DREAM LANDSCAPE # 7 December 2012 Oil on Canvas. 40%22 x 50%22.jpg

DREAM LANDSCAPE #7 December 2012 Oil on Canvas. 40" x 50"

DREAM LANDSCAPE LES #1 sept. 2012 oil on canvas, wood, nails, wire 21%22 x 30%22 .jpg

DREAM LANDSCAPE LES #1 sept. 2012 oil on canvas, wood, nails, wire 21" x 30"

DREAM LANDSCAPE LES #3 oil on canvas 24%22x30%22 nov. 2012.JPG

DREAM LANDSCAPE LES #3 oil on canvas 24"x30" nov. 2012

DREAM LANDSCAPE LES #4 November 2012. oil on canvas 24%22x30%22.jpg

DREAM LANDSCAPE LES #4 November 2012. oil on canvas 24"x30"

DREAM LANDSCAPE #2 october 2012 oil on canvas 24%22x 30%22.jpg

DREAM LANDSCAPE #2 october 2012 oil on canvas 24"x 30"

Approaching Meadow-Bowery and Delancey Street 5-10-13 oil on canvas 18%22 x 24%22.jpg

Approaching Meadow-Bowery and Delancey Street 5-10-13 oil on canvas 18" x 24"

%22Convergence%22 Acrylic on board w-wood and collage. 15.0%22x10.0%22x 4.5%22deep. 11:15:2014 Sally Young.jpg

"Convergence" 15.5" x 10" x 2.5" Acrylic on board with wood and collage. 2014

%22Geometry of East Sixth Street in 1984%22 Acrylic on Board w:Collage and Wood. 24%22x20%22x1%22 deep. 2:13:2015 Sally Young.jpg

"Geometry of East Sixth Street in 1984" 24"x20"x1" Acrylic on board with collage and wood 2015

%22When Sky Meets Land%22 Acrylic on Board w:Collage and Wood. 24%22wx19.5%22h x 2.25%22deep. 1:22:2015 Sally Young.jpg

"When Sky Meets Land" Acrylic on Board w/Collage and Wood. 24"x19.5"x 2.25". January 2015

My work is about the landscape of cities and how I see this landscape. Lower Manhattan, where I've lived and experienced its ever changing landscape for the last 32 years, is the subject of my current series of paintings. . They are topographical maps with buildings, water-towers, tipping their perspective from looking up, or down, as if onto rooftops, fire-escape ladders rising to the top or descending below ground to areas that are below sea level. Exposed stairwells are reminiscent of partially demolished buildings in the LES during the 1980's that exposed the skeleton of the building via stairwell and rooms.

I am a historian of buildings on the Lower-East-Side and the people who lived in them, particularly those of the Bowery. This may not be evident in my paintings which are very ephemeral, but play a large part in the unseen knowledge of the area that I draw my images from. My project is my vision of my neighborhood, as I paint it, as I see it via real images, dreams, memories, and transitions into the future. One thing that was not planned into this, but became a central part of this was Hurricane Sandy.

Last Spring I did a series of drawings that involved the Lower-Manhattan-Coast and its buildings. They were the predecessors to my new paintings. They contained phrases like"below-sea-level", "rising-sea-level", "beach-to-east-river" and "putting chairs-on-roofs…" etc. scrawled on them. After Hurricane Sandy, I looked at my drawings and they took on new meaning. It's not clairvoyance, but really is history of the Dutch, landfill, the eventual elimination of salt marshes and hills, leading to the rise of the city that is in my paintings, with my love of history as well as its outcomes and how those changes reflect our future decisions.

Sally Young