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Rachel Youn

Working across sculpture and installation, Rachel Youn sources materials with a history of aspiration and failure through online secondhand shopping. Venturing into the suburbs, Youn rescues electric massagers from “suburban limbo”, fastening artificial plants to the machines to create kinetic sculptures that are clumsy, erotic, and absurd. Their work identifies with the replica that earnestly desires to be real, and the failed object that simulates care and intimacy.

Rachel Youn received their BFA from the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis and are current MFA candidate in Sculpture at Yale University. They are a recipient of the 2020 Great Rivers Biennial Award and have attended residencies at Vermont Studio Center and ACRE.

Upcoming shows include a solo presentation at Soy Capitán, Berlin, DE (2024) and a group show at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, US (2024).

Solo shows include: Well Adjusted, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, US (2023); No Pain No Gain, Sargent’s Daughters, New York, US (2022); Revival, Soy Capitán, Berlin, DE (2022); Greener than Grass, Truman State University Art Gallery, Kirksville, US (2022); Hair + NAILS, Minneapolis, US (2021), and Gather, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, US (2020).

Group exhibitions include: Where is Your Body, SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco, US (2024); The Butterfly Affect, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, IT (2023); NGXX, The Naughton Gallery, Queen’s University, Belfast, UK (2022); Hotspot, Galleria Nazionale d‘Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, IT (2022); Forest through the Trees, Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis, US (2022); A Knife to Carve a Knife With, La Clinica, Oaxaca, MX (2022), and Retrograde, Galerie du Monde, Central, Hong Kong, CH (2022).

Rachel Youn, born 1994 in Pennsylvania, US, lives and works in New Haven.

CV
Exhibition
Rachel Youn

Portrait of Rachel Youn. Courtesy of the Artist. Photo by Collin Garrity

Works

Rchael Youn, Dive, 2022, shiatsu massager, artificial flower, 167.5 × 41 × 30.5 cm Rachel Youn, Jubilation, 2022, massager, artificial plant, speaker cabinet, 153 × 80 × 30 cm Rachel Youn, Fanatics, 2020, massager, artificial plant, speaker cabinet, 36 × 28 × 133 cm Rachel Youn, Ecologies of Elsewhere, 2023, exhibition view, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Photo by Wes Battoclette, Image Courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH Rachel Youn, Revival, 2022, massagers, artificial plants, speaker cabinets, sound, variable dimensions CLEANSE (I'll do it myself), 2024, Steel, aluminum, AC motor, hardware, nylon, UHMW, “Escape Photoreal Ocean” PEVA shower curtains, 270 × 270 × 143 cm Rachel Youn, Beckoning, 2020, massager, artificial plant, 110 × 80 × 62 cm Rachel Youn, Fanatics, Beckoning and Jubilation, 2022, Soy Capitán, Berlin Rachel Youn, Fixus, 2022, shiatsu massager, artificial flower, steel, 109 × 40.5 × 46 cm Rachel Youn, Dutiful, 2024, Fake flora, shiatsu back massager, foam rollers, steel, drum stand, dog boots, 61 x 45.7 x 76.2 cm Rachel Youn, 10,000 hours, 2022, shiatsu massager, artificial plants, wire stand, flower frogs, 39 × 21.5 × 16 in Rachel Youn, Jubilation, 2022, massager, artificial plant, 190 × 110 × 175 cm Rachel Youn, Wild, 2020, massager, artificial plant, speaker cabinet, 83 × 80 × 60 cm Rachel Youn, Ecologies of Elsewhere, 2023, exhibition view, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Photo by Wes Battoclette, Image Courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH Rachel Youn, Ecologies of Elsewhere, 2023, exhibition view, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Photo by Wes Battoclette, Image Courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH Rachel Youn, Gather (detail), 2020, massagers, artificial plants, found furniture and speakers, sound dimensions variable Rachel Youn, Rejoicer, 2022, massager, artificial plant, speaker cabinet, 169 × 45 × 40 cm Rachel Youn, Gather (detail), 2020, massagers, artificial plants, found furniture and speakers, sound dimensions variable Rachel Youn, Gather, 2020, massagers, artificial plants, found furniture and speakers, sound dimensions variable Rachel Youn, Haunt, 2021, animatronic motor, artificial plants, tire jack, weight, 76 × 79 × 30.5 cm Rachel Youn, Obliged To Play, 2022, neck massager, artificial flowers, firearm wall rack, 33 × 24 × 18 in Rachel Youn, Dive, 2022, circulation massager, artificial plants, steel, 66 × 16 × 12 in Rachel Youn, Hosanna, 2021, massager, artificial plant, 200 × 40 × 30 cm Rachel Youn, Waiting, 2020, shiatsu massager, artificial plant, 33 × 190 × 98 cm Rachel Youn, Fixion, 2022, shiatsu massager, artificial plants, 96 × 96 × 22 in Rachel Youn, Antici...pation, 2021, artificial daikon, bamboo cutting board, decoy motor, wood, cloth, cleaver, 152 × 61 × 112 cm Rachel Youn, Conditional, 2024, steel, display turntable, cord cover, hardware, spring-loaded casters, acrylic, accessories  Rachel Youn, Ecologies of Elsewhere, 2023, exhibition view, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Photo by Wes Battoclette, Image Courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH Rachel Youn, Haunt, 2021, animatronic motor, artificial plants, tire jack, weight, 76 × 79 × 30.5 cm Rachel Youn, Ecologies of Elsewhere, 2023, exhibition view, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Photo by Wes Battoclette, Image Courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH Rachel Youn, Underparty, 2021, massagers, artificial plants, found furniture and speakers, sound dimensions variable Rachel Youn, Gather (detail), 2020, massagers, artificial plants, found furniture and speakers, sound dimensions variable Rachel Youn, Gather (detail), 2020, massagers, artificial plants, found furniture and speakers, sound dimensions variable Rachel Youn, Vicious Glue, 2021, artificial nepenthes, decoy motor, microphone stand, silicone, 142 × 66 × 46 cm Rachel Youn, Waiting, 2020, shiatsu massager, artificial plant, 33 × 190 × 98 cm Rachel Youn, Feelers, 2022, massager, artificial flowers, 61 × 76 × 76 cm Rachel Youn, Feelers, 2022, massager, artificial flowers, 61 × 76 × 76 inches Rachel Youn, Untitled, 2022, shiatsu massager motor, artificial flowers, tablet stand, 147 × 91 × 51 cm Rachel Youn, Ecologies of Elsewhere, 2023, exhibition view, Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, Photo by Wes Battoclette, Image Courtesy of the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH

Exhibitions
Flawless Waltz – Shahin Afrassiabi, Eli Cortiñas, Matthias Dornfeld, Klara Hobza, Talisa Lallai, Paloma Proudfoot, Benja Sachau, Reinhard Voigt, Grace Weaver, Caroline Wong, Rachel Youn • Soy Capitán, Berlin, 2024
Rachel Youn • Doom • MFA Sculpture Thesis Show
Rachel Youn • The Butterfly Affect • Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, 2023
Rachel Youn • Ecologies of Elsewhere • Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center, 2023
Rachel Youn • Revival • Gallery Weekend Berlin • Soy Capitán, Berlin, 2022
Rachel Youn • No Pain No Gain • Sargent’s Daughters
Rachel Youn • HOT SPOT • La Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea
Rachel Youn • NGXX • The Naughton Gallery

Press

Video

Rachel Youn, “Gather” • Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, 2020

Publications

Hot Spot. Caring for a Burning World • Tlon, Aleph, Italy • 2023

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