Russell Young (Born 1959) is known for his silkscreen paintings of cultural icons that are done on large-scale. He’s a British-American Pop artist who was born and raised in York, England. He enrolled at the Exeter College of Art and the Chester Art College, where he studied drawing, graphic design, photography and film. He decided to move to London where he worked as a photographer’s assistant, and this move afforded him a start by taking on commercial projects. He focused on celebrity portraiture and this made his business to grow very fast so he relocated to Los Angeles where he began to direct music videos. In the 1990s, Young began to move away from photography to follow his heart - his interest was in painting. In 2000, he settled in New York, and three years later, he began to capture the attention of the art world with a series of celebrity mugshots titled Pig Portraits, which focused on the disadvantages of fame.
The artist is best known for his screen-print enamel paintings on linen, which explore rock and roll, celebrity, history and death. His earliest notable pieces of art as an artist are his Police mug shots "Pig Portraits", the life-size portraits of celebrities screened onto canvas. These were first shown in 2003 and were a critical success. They were later exhibited in the United States and London. Next was his Fame plus Shame series in which he explored American life as seen through the eyes of a youngster growing up in England. Young is a fan of Andy Warhol, the Pop Art pioneer, and he currently uses a Warhol press. Young works and lives between New York and California.
