Kennedy Yanko
Individual Works
Art in Lockdown - Kennedy Yanko from Kavi Gupta on Vimeo.
Kennedy Yanko - Hannah - Kavi Gupta from Kavi Gupta CHICAGO | BERLIN on Vimeo.
b. 1988, USA, Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Kennedy Yanko (b. 1988) is a Brooklyn-based artist working primarily with found objects and paint. Her formal gesture towards material is balanced by an intuitive response to the shapes, colors, textures and scale that she’s presented with. Yanko’s work deals with the ambiguity within perception and emphasizes the importance of abstraction as a means to developing an intuitive sight akin to critical thinking.
Since debuting sculptures from her “Elements and Skin” collection as part of a Derrick Adams-curated group show, “Hidden in Plain Sight” (Jenkins Johnson Project Space. Brooklyn, NY. 2017), Yanko has regularly exhibited domestically and internationally. In 2019, Yanko debuted three solo shows–Highly Worked (Denny Dimin Gallery, NY), Hannah (Kavi Gupta, Chicago), and Before Words (UICA, Grand Rapids)–and installed her first public sculpture, 3 WAYS, on the Poydras Corridor in New Orleans in collaboration with The Helis Foundation and the Ogden Museum of Art. In 2019, Yanko was also named Art Forum’s “Critic’s Pick,” received a Colene Brown Art Prize awarded by BRIC Arts Media, and was featured in 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow published by Thames & Hudson. In the last couple of years, Yanko has also exhibited in institutional settings: with the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Parallels and Peripheries curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah) and with University of South Florida (Life During WarTime, curated by Christian Viveros). Yanko’s 2020 brings an exciting lineup of exhibitions, one of the most anticipated being her solo show, SALIENT QUEENS, opening with VIELMETTER LOS ANGELES in September. Her work belongs to corporate collections including that of JP Morgan Chase and TD Bank, and many private collections, namely: Beth Rudin deWoody, Helyn Goldenberg, David Hoberman.
Kennedy Yanko CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 Because it’s in my blood, Marco Poggiali Gallery, Milan, Italy
Salient Queens, Vielmetter Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
2019 Before Words, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI
HANNAH, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
HIGHLY WORKED, Denny Dimin Gallery, New York, NY
2018 Chasing Time, Leyendecker Gallery, Tenerife Canary Islands
2016 Indelible Fluidity, Outlaw Arts, Miami, FL
2013 Alchemy in Silent Spaces, Idiosyncrasy Gallery, New York, NY
2012 Permutation, The Paragon Theatre, St. Louis, MO
Untitled, White Rabbit, New York, NY
2010 Paroxysm, Art Monster, St. Louis, MO
2009 Wu-Wei, Abstrakt Gallery, St. Louis, MO
2008 Untitled,The Nash Hotel, Miami Beach, FL
Untitled, Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2020 Untitled, Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY
PARALLELS AND PERIPHERIES: Fractals and Fragments, Galleria Anna Marra, Rome, Italy
Life During Wartime, University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL
SITE: Art and Architecture in the Digital SPace, Library Street Collective, Detroit, MI
2019 IMPLIED BODY, Assembly Room, New York, NY
EXPO Chicago, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
PARALLELS AND PERIPHERIES. MOCAD, Detroit, MI
Harlem Perspectives, FACTION Arts Projects, New York, NY
2018 Cry of Victory, Short Walks to Freedom, Projects + Gallery, St. Louis, MO
Outside in 2, Michael David Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
PARALLELS AND PERIPHERIES, ArtCenter South Florida, Miami, FL
EXPO Chicago, Kavi Gupta Gallery, Chicago, IL
EXPO Chicago, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Chicago, IL
Alchemy, BRIC Arts Media, Brooklyn, NY
Almost Green, Lyle O. Reitzel Gallery, New York, NY
Summertime, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Fransisco, CA
The Barn Show 2018, Johannes Vogt Gallery, Hampton, NY
ARCO Madrid, Leyendecker Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Senses and Perception, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
ARCO LISBOA, Leyendecker Gallery, Lisbon, Portugal
The Aesthetics of Matter, VOLTA, New York, NY
Out of Line, Long Gallery, New York, NY
2017PROJECTS MIAMI BEACH 2017, PULSE Contemporary Art Fair, Miami, FL
Hidden in Plain Sight, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2016 Full Circle, Mason Gallery, New York, NY
2015 Superfine Art Fair, Art Basel, Miami, FL
2014 I Kan Do Dat, Rush Art Galleries, New York, NY
Art Now, Poppington Gallery, New York, NY
A Curious Cast of Characters, Spinelli Gallery, New York, NY
2013 The Future is Now, The Highline Loft, New York, NY
PUBLIC SCULPTURE
20193 Ways, Funded by the The Helis Foundation, Poydras Corridor, New Orleans, LA
RESIDENCIES
2018
Artist Residency, Galeria Leyendecker Tenerife, Canary Islands
2017
Artist Residency, Fountainhead, Miami, FL
2013
Artist Residency, Idiosyncrasy Gallery, New York, NY
2010
Artist Residency, Atlantic Center of the Arts, New Smyrna Beach, FL
2009-2012
Resident Performer, The Living Theater, New York, NY
PERFORMANCES
2012
Seven Meditations on Political Sado-Masochism, The Living Theatre, New York, NY
2011
History of the World, The Living Theatre, New York, NY
2010
Korach, The Living Theatre, New York, NY
2009
Red Noir, The Living Theatre, New York, NY
EDUCATION
2009
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
PRESS
KENNEDY YANKO: IN HER OWN WORDS
Brooklyn NY based Artist Kennedy Yanko guides us through an intimate journey of her process, her connection to materiality, and the intersecting concepts behind her work. Kennedy Yanko is a sculptor based in Bushwick, Brooklyn. She works fluently in metal and paint…
INTERVIEW WITH KENNEDY YANKO BY NOAH BECKER
Kennedy Yanko is a Brooklyn based sculptor, I went to her studio and we had a long conversation about her work. It was great to get a first-hand tour of the studio and some insights into Yanko’s personality and how she manages to thrive in the New York art world…
ALL THE FEELS: NANA TA ASARE BOADU AND KENNEDY YANKO
eel For is a new project by Kennedy Yanko featuring an immersive installation and collaborative performance with artist Nana Ya Asare Boadu. Now on view as part of the BRIC group exhibition, “Alchemy,” Feel For incorporates both repurposed industrial metals…
ARTIST OF THE WEEK: KENNEDY YANKO
ennedy Yanko defies gender norms not only with her stylish unconventional platinum buzz cut, but by creating alluring sculptures with traditionally male-dominated mediums like rubber, metal, wood, and marble. The artist uses her background of painting…
HOW ARTIST KENNEDY YANKO WENT FORM BODYBUILDING TO METALWORKING
For seven years, Kennedy Yanko hustled to make ends meet, like so many young artists do when they move to New York. She lived in a basement with 12 actors and performed at the the now-shuttered Living Theatre in the Lower East Side…
THREE PULSES: VENTIKO, FISCHER CHERRY, AND KENNEDY YANKO
In the lead up to Art Basel Miami this year and every year for that matter, freelance art writers accumulate a plethora of urgent press materials advocating for why certain fairs cannot be missed, why their party will be the party…
STUDIO VISIT WITH KENNEDY YANKO
On a sunny Sunday afternoon in September, I paid a visit to Kennedy Yanko’s raw studio space in Bushwick to take in her powerful sculptures. Yanko is a painter and sculptor who has been Brooklyn-based for the past seven years. Her paintings, which she calls ‘skins’ are…
IT’S A LITTLE ABOUT KENNEDY YANKO
Judith Malina’s 2012 play History of the World stands firmly as the definitive high-water mark for downtown Manhattan’s now-defunct Living Theatre. The play’s themes were timely (see: Occupy) and its cast was as strong as any in the theater’s long history…