In anticipation of her upcoming solo exhibition Orchid Fever, opening June 14th at 5-50 Gallery, visual artist and meaning-maker Hayley Youngs invites us into a realm where color, nature and the spiritual merge. With paintings that feel like windows into other worlds, Youngs creates work that is at once transcendent and deeply grounded—a vibrant meditation on landscape, abstraction and the emotional weight of form.
“Lately, that search for beauty and refuge has led me to a new body of work called Orchid Fever,” Youngs shares. “After living in New York City for 20 years, I find myself craving a deeper connection to nature. The chaos and intensity of urban life push me further into my studio, where I build vivid, dreamlike worlds. My paintings have become personal portals and spaces where I can escape, process and imagine.”
A desire for expansion and exploration is central to Youngs’ evolving artistic voice. In Orchid Fever, her focus turns to how “the flower feels like a being from another realm—strange, divine, and emotionally charged.”
This fascination isn’t limited to floral subjects. Across her body of work, Youngs is deeply invested in abstracting the common-place not as a formal exercise but as a tool for transcendence. Whether she’s reimagining landscapes, flora or figures, her use of color and texture open up metaphysical spaces. Something which will stand out to anyone who comes into contact with her work is how seriously she's invested in creating portals to alternate dimensions. Her paintings pulse with a magnetic energy: symmetrical, psychedelic and deeply emotive.
“I’ve been working with visual mediums for as long as I can remember,” she recalls. “Drawing was always a fun way of expressing myself and processing the world around me growing up.”
Over time, Youngs’ artistic identity has crystallized into a language influenced by Surrealism, Art Nouveau and Art Deco. “My style has developed over time through both experimentation and intuition,” she says. “I’m definitely drawn to artists like Kandinsky and O’Keeffe, whose work taps into the spiritual or emotional potential of color and form. I also think the graphic quality comes from movements that merge ornamentation with structure and celebrate beauty as something transcendent.”
The interplay between ornamentation and structure is part of what makes her work feel like liminal spaces that bridge the literal with the symbolic. Her use of curvilinear forms and hypnotic palettes evoke a spectrum of influences, yet remain wholly her own. “I didn’t set out to define a particular style,” she notes. “Rather, it emerged naturally through repeated themes, color as vibration, a sense of movement or meditation.”
Her art-making practice, she explains, is her spiritual practice. “It’s where I listen, connect and channel something beyond the visible. It’s a process of tuning into an essence and letting it guide the composition.”
Though her process was once fully intuitive, it has shifted into something more structured, especially with Orchid Fever. “With my current body of work, I’ve taken a more intentional approach,” she says. “I spend time gathering reference photos, making sketches and mock-ups, and really considering composition and palette before I start painting. The orchids themselves are so intricate and full of personality that they invite deeper planning. Still, even with that structure in place, I leave space for spontaneity as the piece develops.”
The blend of planning and spontaneity gives her work a distinctive tension—between control and surrender, clarity and mystery. “It’s a balance between preparation and letting the painting evolve on its own terms, something I’ve grown into over time.”
Looking ahead, Youngs sees her work continuing to evolve, but the core vision remains the same: to build immersive spaces of reflection and awe. “My work has grown from purely abstract, intuitive explorations of form, color and thought into a more focused, concept-driven practice,” she explains. “I want to continue expanding the interplay between abstraction and recognizable forms, pushing the boundaries of how color, texture, and pattern can evoke emotional and spiritual responses. I want to build visual worlds that people can feel they step into—and that will blow their minds.”
While she doesn’t place herself in a strict lineage, she draws deep inspiration from artists like Hilma af Klint, Agnes Pelton, G.R. Santosh, Judy Chicago, Kandinsky, and Georgia O’Keeffe, among others.
Hayley Youngs paints not just with pigment but with presence—each piece an invitation to slow down, look closer and step into a world where color vibrates, form meditates and nature becomes a dreamscape.
