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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. 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.

CV

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, 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, 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 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, 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, 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, Gather, 2020, massagers, artificial plants, found furniture and speakers, sound dimensions variable 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, 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, 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
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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