Kennedy Yanko

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 2024, the artist’s work was included in a number of group exhibitions, including Gazing Bodies, CF Hill, Stockholm (SE); In an effort to be held, The Shepherd, Detroit (MI); Stories that need to be told, Firestorm Collection, Stockholm (SE); The Beauty of Diversity, Albertina Museum, Vienna (AT); and Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys, which began at The Brooklyn Museum (NY) and traveled to the High Museum, Atlanta (GA). In 2023 Yanko unveiled two public sculpture commissions: Crystallized Tears at Arkansas State Park, Little Rock; and Tilted Lift, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (MI). In 2021 Yanko was Artist-in-Residence at the Rubell Museum, Miami (FL).

Yanko’s work resides in numerous public and private collections, including Albertina Museum, Vienna (AT); The Brooklyn Museum (NY); Bunker Artspace, West Palm Beach (FL); Firestorm Foundation, Stockholm (SE); Rubell Museum, Miami (FL); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MA); Pérez Art Museum, Miami (FL); Ståhl Collection, Norrköping (SE); and The Norton Museum, West Palm Beach (FL), among others.

In Spring 2025, Yanko will stage her largest exhibition to date at Salon 94 in collaboration with James Cohan.