Brief Bio
Rachel Youens is an accomplished painter, a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago (BFA 1980) with a Master of Fine Arts degree from Brooklyn College (CUNY 1993), where she studied with Lois Dodd, John Walker, and the late Jack Whitten and Lennart Anderson. She has exhibited in numerous one, two, and three person shows in the New York Metropolitan area, including Sideshow Gallery (2006), Open Source (2010), the Salena Gallery, Long Island University (2013), and Valentine Gallery (2013, 2017). A close observer of nature and society, her allegorical still life, plein aire, and panoramic tableau paintings have been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship (2008-2009), a Pollack-Krasner Foundation Grant (2006), and grants from the Professional Staff Congress, CUNY (2008, 2015). She has enjoyed Artist in Residencies at the Fundacíon Valparaiso in Almería, Spain and The Ragdale Foundation in Lake Forest, Illinois. Youens has written art criticism for Cover Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, NY Arts Magazine, The Villager, NowChelsea, and artcritical.com. A dedicated educator, she teaches courses in painting, theory, and design at Parsons School of Design, The New School, and at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY) in New York City.
