DANIA BEACH, FL.- Purvis Young Angels exhibition opens at Grace gallery. Born on February 2, 1943 in Miami's Liberty City, Purvis Young learned the art of drawing as a little boy watching his maternal Uncle who was a figurative artist. He first picked up a paint brush at the age of 20. Today, Young's work is in more than 60 public collections and numerous private ones; in 2006 alone he had six exhibitions. His work hangs in The Bass Museum of Art (Miami); American Folk Art Museum (New York); The Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.); High Museum of Art (Atlanta): Lowe Art Museum (University of Miami); Museum of Fine Arts (Houston); New Orleans Museum of Art; Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Smithsonian American Art Museum among many others (a full list is available upon request). Young, who prefers to be known solely as a painter, has recently been called an Urban Expressionist painter, a category much better suited to his body of work. When thinking of an outsider artist the term generally reflects one who is naïve, isolated and disassociated from contemporary life – none of these terms are applicable to Young. "I was put on this earth to paint, not to live," says Young.

The Grace Gallery & Studios was opened by Clare Vickery in 2005. The 7,000 square foot space has been the Broward gallery for Purvis Young since its inception. Ms. Vickery is also the founder of the Dania Beach Winter Art & Antique Festival, an annual street fair that is scheduled this year to take place on January 26 and 27, 2008.

The Angels Exhibition includes 100+ paintings, drawings and mixed media works on wood, paper and other materials from 1988 to the present day. This is the first major retrospective (20 years of Purvis Young) since his kidney transplant in January 2007. The angel theme has been one of Young’s hallmarks from his earliest work where one sees angels on earth with halos, small angels with wings from heaven and the saintly, stoic angels each signifying help and guidance or posing a question about the state of the world.

Young has created a series of holiday cards which will be sold at Grace Gallery from November 1, 2007. A box of 25 is priced at $25.

On December 1, 2007 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. a live charity auction will be held at Grace Gallery and proceeds above the reserve price will be donated to the Boys & Girls Club of Broward County and Team of Life (both 501c3 organizations in Broward County).