Anicka Yi: Death

Anicka Yi creates art that poetically speaks to the experience of everyday life and the things that govern it—whether they are major corporations like Monsanto or emotions such as those tied to loss. While her art often takes the form of sculpture, it hardly behaves as such, decomposing before our very eyes or wafting away in the form of a handmade perfume. Running throughout Yi’s work is a deep interest in all of the senses a human body can experience—and thus one can often smell a work by Yi before seeing it in the gallery. Engaging with viewers on an intellectual, emotional, and even sensual level, her work is simultaneously alluring and curious.

In 2013 Yi began a trilogy of exhibitions to explore, as she has written, “the forensics of loss and longing,” creating work inspired by the very human emotions we attach to romance and daily life: Denial, Divorce, and now, Death. Following gallery shows in Berlin and New York, the Transformer Station will host the culmination of Yi’s trilogy, which will analyze the acceptance of what it means to be human. Presenting artworks from earlier in her career as well as new pieces making their debut in Cleveland, Anicka Yi: Death will include a unique installation design that will evoke both the sterility associated with death and the flurry of life before the final breath.

Anicka Yi lives and works in New York City. Previous solo exhibitions include: Divorce, 47 Canal, New York; Denial, Lars Friedrich, Berlin; SOUS-VIDE, 47 Canal, New York, and Excuse Me, Your Necklace Is Leaking, Green Gallery, Milwaukee. She has been included in numerous group exhibitions at venues including the 12th Biennale de Lyon; Studiolo, Zurich; MoCA, North Miami; Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel; White Flag Projects, Saint Louis; Sculpture Center, New York, and White Columns, New York. She was awarded a Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award in 2011. Upcoming projects include the Taipei Biennial and MIT Visiting Artist Program, Cambridge.