ASPEN ART MUSEUM
SUMMER 2024 EDITION
47
ArtCrush Auction 2024
In an interview in 2022 with Elephant magazine, Simão explains that she never works when she is sad. To get her into the “state of courage” she needs to paint, music plays an important role. And, indeed, there is a lyricism to her work—an intensely personal form of expression, but one abundant in its generosity. As she explains in the same lm from 2024, for Simão the more meanings the work can contain, the better: “I don’t want to be too descrip- tive, I don’t want to give too much detail. I want to leave room for the person who’s looking at it. They can be creative as well.” Born in Vitória, Brazil, Simão studied in Paris, and now lives in São Paulo. Her work is held in a number of public collections, including the Musée d’Art moderne et contemporain de Saint-Étienne in France; Speed Art Museum, Louisville; and University of Chicago. Kennedy Yanko Work generously donated by the artist and James Cohan Beauty is important to Kennedy Yanko. Speaking with curator Kimberly Drew in a video interview for Cultured in 2020, Yanko explains, “[it] is a very pow- erful thing, and I think it’s something that moves us and drives us in ways that we don’t even necessarily under- stand.” For Yanko, “the idea of beauty is contrast”—and it is this belief that lies at the heart of her work. Anchored to the wall, sitting on the oor or sus- pended from the ceiling, the sculptures combine found metal sourced from East Coast scrapyards with “paint skins,” created by pouring customized latex paint into trays. The monochro- matic sheets of paint drape around the battered and bruised metal forms; nudged into the crevices, their crum- pled folds cascade down. Alive with a sense of movement, the two materials interact—hard with soft, rough with smooth. In her 2022 catalogue essay for the exhibition at CFHILL in Stockholm, which paired Yanko’s sculptures with the paintings of the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (1862–1944), Debra Singer writes, “For many, Yanko’s sculptures may at rst appear to be a sort of love child between the work of the late John Chamberlain and that of Lynda Benglis.” Singer goes on to o¥er her own interpretation, remarking that Yanko’s “choice and handling of her recycled materials allude to the rugged splendor of the urban landscape and to the cyclical nature of life, as manifested in the continuous ow of one form of matter to another.” Yanko was born in St Louis, studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and now lives in Brooklyn. Her work is included in the collection of the Albertina Museum in Vienna and Rubell Museum, Miami, where she was artist- in-residence in 2021. Her installation No More Drama is currently on show at the Brooklyn Museum (through July 28) as part of “Brooklyn Abstraction: Four Artists, Four Walls.”
Left Kennedy Yanko. Courtesy: the artist; photograph: Seleen Saleh
Sara Harrison is a freelance editor. She lives in London, UK.
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