Aspen Art Museum

I wanted it to be true

2022

Paint skin, metal

41.125 × 35.5 × 12 in   |   104.26 × 90.17 × 30.48 cm

Kindly donated by the artist, James Cohan Gallery and Salon 94

Estimate: $80,000–$120,000

The following text appears in the Aspen Art Museum Summer Magazine

Beauty is important to Kennedy Yanko. Speaking with curator Kimberly Drew in a video interview for Cultured in 2020, Yanko explains, “[it] is a very powerful thing, and I think it’s something that moves us and drives us in ways that we don’t even necessarily under- stand.” For Yanko, “the idea of beauty is contrast”—and it is this belief that lies at the heart of her work. Anchored to the wall, sitting on the floor or suspended from the ceiling, the sculptures combine found metal sourced from East Coast scrapyards with “paint skins,” created by pouring customized latex paint onto flat surfaces. The monochromatic sheets of paint twist around the battered and bruised metal forms; nudged into the crevices, their crumpled folds cascade down. Alive with a sense of movement, the two materials interact—hard with soft, rough with smooth.

In her 2022 catalogue essay for the exhibition at CFHILL in Stockholm, which put Yanko’s sculptures in dialogue with the paintings of the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), Debra Singer writes, “For many, Yanko’s sculptures may at first appear to be a sort of love child between the work of the late John Chamberlain and that of Lynda Benglis.” Singer goes on to offer her own interpretation, remarking that Yanko’s “choice and handling of her recycled materials allude to the rugged splendor of the urban landscape and to the cyclical nature of life, as manifested in the continuous flow of one form of matter to another.”

Yanko was born in St Louis, studied at the SFAI, and has spent most of her professional artist life working in Brooklyn. Her work is included in the collection of the Albertina Museum in Vienna, the Rubell Museum, Miami, where she was artist-in-residence in 2021, as well as the Perez Art Museum Miami and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, among others. Her installation No More Drama is currently on view at the Brooklyn Museum through July 2025.

About the Artist

Kennedy Yanko 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). Most recently, she debuted two solo exhibitions: Humming on Life with Jeffrey Deitch Gallery (2023, New York, NY) and She is a Verb with Salon 94 (2023, Paris, France).

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), Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria, the Perez Art Museum Miami, among others. Kennedy’s work can also be seen in the PAMM’s collection as well as the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

How to Bid

All lots will be on view at the Aspen Art Museum from July 17 through August 1.

Bidding on this work takes place at the ArtCrush gala on Friday, August 2nd, at 8pm MT. Absentee and telephone bidding available.

Please contact bid@aspenartmuseum.org for more information, including a condition report.

In the Live Auction, there is no Buyer’s Premium and the difference between the mid-estimate and the winning bid is a tax deductible donation to the museum.

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