Janel Young

Janel Young is a Pittsburgh-raised artist who further developed her work in New York City over the course of five years, focusing on murals, abstract, and landscape works. Her style contains blending, bright colors and geometric inspiration. She found a love for painting after being selected as part of a mural painting team in seventh grade at Rogers CAPA, and later completed an International Baccalaureate art program at Schenley High School in 2009. She moved to New York in 2013 after graduating from Penn State University (B.S. Marketing and International Studies) and held onto art for self-therapy, expression and activism. She returned to her hometown in 2019 to complete Pittsburgh’s first art basketball court: The Home Court Advantage Project. The City of Pittsburgh awarded Janel a proclamation for her community-centered effort to wrap the city in color, making October 23, 2019 “JANEL YOUNG DAY” in the City of Pittsburgh. On the anniversary the following year, Janel established the JY Originals Scholarship for Creatives – a $1,000 award for a young adult pursuing the arts.

 

Janel's artwork has been recognized locally and internationally, including being awarded a proclamation by the City of Pittsburgh, within AfroPunk.com, The Apollo Theatre, Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, Ebony Magazine, at the 2020 U.S. Open Tennis Tournament, Verizon Media, Yahoo.com and RAW Artists shows in New York City and Sydney, Australia.