Purvis Young uses recycled materials found on the streets of one of Miami, Florida’s urban neighborhoods to create art in a style that is truly unique and captivating. He is considered to be one of the greatest outsider artists of our time and his work has found its way into many private collections and public museums around the world.

Young first gained attention as an artist more than 40 years ago, when he began making large mural-style paintings on plywood nailed to the exteriors of abandoned buildings in the Overtown ghetto where he has spent most of his life. An example of his outside stylings can be found on display at the House of Blues in Orlando, FL, where a 60 ft. installation painted by Purvis on a fence is part of the permanent backdrop adjacent to the restaurant.

Young’s work has been sold at many major auction houses including Christie’s N.Y, which is why his artwork continues to grow in value.  In a fashion characteristic of his work, the paintings are on scrap wood panels and other flat, rectangular materials that Young salvages from the streets. He uses them in such a way that they can be seen as metaphors for the human lives that are wasted in such economically impoverished inner-city environments - tossed aside by society and yet being capable of being reclaimed and restored,  just as Young transforms and repurposes the castoffs from which he makes his art.