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. They are a current MFA candidate in Sculpture at Yale University.
Solo shows include 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 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). Youn is a recipient of the 2020 Great Rivers Biennial Award and has attended residences at Vermont Studio Center and ACRE.
Rachel Youn, born 1994 in Pennsylvania, United States, lives and works in New Haven.
Exhibitions
Press
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"Hotshot Gallerist Lexi Bishop Left New York and L.A. to Strike Out on Her Own in Pittsburgh" by Vittoria Benzine
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"Retrograde: A Revival of Care" by Angelique Santos
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"Elephant's Pick of the Shows from Gallery Weekend Berlin"
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"Sweeping the Chimney through the Mantle of the Earth" by Neil Thrun
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Gewächs-House Rachel Youn bei Soy Capitán
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Rachel Youn: Revival
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“The Art of Failure: An Interview with Rachel Youn.” by Lucia Longhi
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“5 Best Artist Instagram Accounts to Follow.” by Jasmine Edelbrunner
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“‘Hothouse’ and ‘Moonment’: Brick City Gallery’s latest kinetic exhibitions.” by Greta Cross
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“Breakroom Small Talk: A Review of Water Cooler at LVL3.” by Ally Fouts
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“Summer show at Wassaic Project: ‘If You Lived Here You’d Be Home By Now.’” by Linda Marston-Reid
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“Q&A: Rachel Youn.” by Jess T. Dugan
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“Terry Adkins, CAM, and MONACO – Visiting St. Louis in a Pandemic.” by Sumire Skye Taniai
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“Artist of the Week: Rachel Youn.” by Kaitlyn Albrecht
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“Traversing The Great Rivers Biennial.” by Melissa Fandos
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“In CAM Show, Rachel Youn Explores where Megachurch Meets Dance Club.” by Sarah Fenske
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“A Pandemic Perspective on Art.” by Grace Rakestraw