My work centers on painting and drawing that explore the intersection of psychological states and the natural world through vivid color, symmetry, and fluid, organic forms. Influenced by surrealism, psychedelia, and visionary traditions, my practice is intuitive and process driven, prioritizing sensation and perception over literal representation.

I continue to expand Orchid Fever, an ongoing body of work in which orchids function as both subject and portal, strange, otherworldly forms that evoke beauty, desire, fragility, and resilience. Alongside these paintings, I create studies of gardens, drawn to their lush, immersive landscapes and almost hallucinogenic intensity of color. Living in Brooklyn, I am especially captivated by the abundance and visual escape that cultivated gardens can offer.

Through transformation and heightened color, I create imagined natural environments that feel both familiar and fantastical, visual refuges that invite beauty, escape, and quiet reflection.

Bio

Hayley Youngs (b. 1986, Oneonta, NY) is a painter living and working in Brooklyn, NY. She holds a BFA from Pratt Institute and has exhibited widely, including at Hollis Taggart Gallery, Wassaic Project, Future Fair, Spring Break Art Fair, 5‑50 Gallery, Deanna Evans Project, and IRL Gallery, among others.

Youngs has had four solo exhibitions, most recently Orchid Fever in June 2025, and will participate in the Spring 2026 residency at L’AiR Arts in Paris.

Her work has been featured in WhiteHot Magazine, ArtMaze Magazine, Create Magazine, Ain’t Bad Magazine, Time Out Magazine, and All She Makes Magazine (in collaboration with Art Girl Rising), among others.

Full exhibition and publication history available in CV.
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“... color awakens a physical sensation, which undoubtedly works upon the soul.” - Wassily Kandinsky

“Concerning the Spiritual in Art”