Kennedy Yanko, hoto by Mike Vitelli. Styling by Martin Tordby.
Kennedy Yanko (b. 1988, St. Louis, MO) is a sculptor and installation artist recognized for her innovative use of found metal and "paint skins" - a material she creates by pouring and shaping large amounts of paint. Her work blurs the boundaries between sculpture and painting, abstraction and figuration, the physical and metaphysical. Yanko’s practice draws on Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism while exploring the limitations of visual perception and the interplay between seen and unseen forces.
Yanko’s sculptures often appear weightless despite their substantial materials, challenging the viewer’s perception of gravity and form. Her creative process involves sourcing, welding and shaping salvaged metal, then laboriously integrating it with dynamic, tarp-like paint skins. Influenced by Daoism and theosophic ideologies, Yanko’s cyclic repurposing of materials emphasizes renewal and transformation, making abstraction a means of clarity and intuition.
A prominent artist of her generation, Yanko was the first sculptor to be an Artist-in-Residence at the Rubell Museum (2021-2022). Recent exhibitions include White, Passing at the Rubell Museum (2021), By Means Other Than the Known Senses at Art Basel Unlimited (2022) and No More Drama at the Brooklyn Museum (2022). In 2023, she presented solo exhibitions Humming on Life (Jeffrey Deitch Gallery, New York) and She is a Verb (Salon 94, Paris). Her work has been shown at institutions such as the Albertina Museum (Vienna), Pérez Art Museum (Miami), Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit and Parrish Art Museum (New York).
Yanko’s sculptures are part of major private and institutional collections, including the Albertina Museum, the Rubell Museum and the Pérez Art Museum. Living and working in Miami, she continues to create works that expand the limits of materiality and perception while offering fresh perspectives on renewal and regeneration.