Biography
Photo by Mike Vitelli. Styling by Martin Tordby.
Kennedy Yanko (b. 1988, St. Louis, MO) is a sculptor and installation artist working in found metal and paint skin. Yanko deploys her materials in ways that explore the limitations of optic vision, underlining the opportunities we miss when looking with eyes alone. Her methods reflect a dual abstract expressionist-surrealist approach that centers the seen and unseen factors that affect, contribute to, and moderate human experience.
Select installations from 2021-2022 include White, Passing at the Rubell Museum (2021, Miami, FL) where Yanko was an Artist in Residence, By means other than the known senses at the Unlimited Section of Art Basel (2022, Basel, Switzerland), and No more Drama at the Brooklyn Museum (2022, Brooklyn, NY). In March 2023, she debuted her solo exhibition, Humming on Life, with Jeffrey Deitch Gallery in New York.
Yanko's institutional exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit; University of South Florida; Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (UICA). Her work is included in notable private museums, namely: The Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach (Beth Rudin DeWoody), Espacio Tacuari, Buenos Aires (Juan Vergez and Patricia Pearson), the Rubell Museum, Miami (Don and Mera Rubell). Most recently, Yanko’s work was acquired by the Albertina Museum in Vienna, Austria.