Works by Kennedy Yanko at Sotheby's
Kennedy Yanko Biography
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.
In 2019, Yanko debuted three solo shows: Highly Worked (Denny Dimin Gallery, New York), 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 2020, she opened two solo shows, Because it’s in my blood (Galleria Poggiali, Milan) and Salient Queens (Vielmetter Gallery, Los Angeles), and in 2021, Yanko presented her solo exhibition Postcapitalist Desire (Tilton Gallery, New York), and White, Passing at the Rubell Museum (Miami, FL).
Yanko was named Art Forum’s “Critic’s Pick” in 2019 and was featured in 100 Sculptors of Tomorrow published by Thames & Hudson. She was the 2021 Artist in Residence at the Rubell Museum.
Yanko's institutional exhibitions include the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (Parallels and Peripheries curated by Larry Ossei-Mensah); University of South Florida (Life During WarTime, curated by Christian Viveros-Faune).
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), and the Rubell Museum, Miami (Don and Mera Rubell).
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