Salient Queens, 2020
Solo show at Vielmetter Los Angeles
Definition, is a way of pacifying the self. The instant gratification awarded through a label, phrase or term alleviates the need to endure the arduous work of wading through vagaries, or spending time with material that’s not immediately perceptible. The abstract expressionists knew this human tendency though--the tendency to circumvent the less literal--and spoke their minds regardless. They harnessed the space between ideation and definition, putting a wedge of possibility where one would expect something concrete.
But within this abstract space, there’s a palpable existence--a specific language emitted from the work, which is fundamental to its completeness. Such wholeness relies on the transmutation of the artist: her voice, spirit, mind and motivation. While she is inseparable from the experience of her work, intuiting her presence within the piece is where opportunity arises for an expanded dialogue.
The contents of this expanded conversation allude to the artist’s coordinates of time: notable moments that have indirectly and directly resulted in the work’s creation, as well as the more mundane, repetitive and procedural labor involved in physically realizing the piece. While the durational qualities of the work are not invisible, they are difficult to delineate.
SALIENT QUEENS speaks directly to this truth and offers abstraction as a medium for articulating the artist’s specific perceptual experience. Within this body of work she renders her character in the form of heavy metal and visceral paint skins. Each gesture of color is an insight, each fold in material a deliberate thought. Named after women who have shown Yanko what it means to take up space (Gussie, Sky, Lulu, Bambi, Julia), these pieces are instructive stories that demonstrate the artist’s becoming. Each work acknowledges a process unseen and yet inherently present.
