Past
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Looking North
Karian Amaya, Margrethe Aanestad, Shane Charles 18 Mar - 27 May 2023 Read more -
(Im)possibly Connected
Sun Young Kang + Jenny Rafalson 21 Jan - 11 Mar 2023 Read more -
Botond Részegh - Weekday Angel
Solo Exhibition 12 Nov 2022 - 7 Jan 2023 Yi Gallery is delighted to present Weekday Angel, Botond Részegh’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. This is the Transylvanian artist’s first stateside exhibition since 2015 and brings together paintings and works on paper from the artist’s three best-known series in recent years - Angel, Anatomy of War and Weekdays... Read more -
Lilou - Eye Contact
Solo Exhibition 24 Sep - 29 Oct 2022 Yi Gallery is proud to present a new body of work by Li Xia (Lilou Oh Yeah). This is the France-based artist's first New York solo exhibition and her second exhibition with the gallery. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, September 24 from 3PM to 6PM. The opening... Read more -
GJ Kimsunken - Figuration
Solo Exhibition 23 Jul - 10 Sep 2022 Yi Gallery is pleased to present Figuration, an extraordinary body of new paintings by GJ Kimsunken. This is Kimsunken's first solo show in New York. The opening, at which the artist will be present, will take place on Saturday, July 23, from 3pm to 6pm. Starting July 28, an online... Read more -
Kate Casanova - Gut Feeling
Solo Exhibition 14 May - 9 Jul 2022 YI GALLERY is proud to announce Gut Feeling, a solo exhibition of new works by sculptor Kate Casanova. This is the artist’s first solo presentation with the gallery, and her work will be on view May 14 through July 9. The opening will coincide with the NYC X DESIGN Festival... Read more -
And, Already, Words
Contemporary Text-Based Work 8 Jan - 5 Mar 2022 This exhibition is both a love letter to the use of text in visual art and a probe into the power of words as a medium of expression. The artists in the exhibition, whose work ranges from neon sculpture, ceramics and oil painting to the radical use of ephemeral materials,... Read more -
Where We Meet Ourselves
Debra Ramsay + GJ Kimsunken Two - Person Exhibition 15 Oct - 21 Nov 2021 Yi Gallery is delighted to present a two-person exhibition by Debra Ramsay and GJ Kimsunken in the gallery’s new space, located in Brooklyn’s Industry City. Where We Meet Ourselves features paintings and works on paper that highlight the visual conversations between the two artists and their shared exploration of creating... Read more -
Embraces
ART + DESIGN Group Exhibition 7 Aug - 18 Sep 2021 OPENING: Saturday, August 7 Yi Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition, Embraces, featuring works by Annesta Le, In Kyoung Chun, Kate Casanova, Ashley Lyon, April Key, MaryKate Maher and Juanita Lanzo. Inspired by the human body and the built environment humans construct and inhabit, the artists in Embraces... Read more -
Leah Harper - Mitosis
Solo Exhibition 10 Apr - 15 May 2021 Yi Gallery is delighted to present Mitosis, a collection of biomorphic site-specific installations and drawings by Brooklyn-based artist Leah Harper. This new body of work will be on view from April 10-May 15 at 56 Bogart Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Read more -
Lionel Cruet - Dusk/Daybreak
Solo Exhibition 21 Aug - 19 Sep 2020 Yi Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of new works by Lionel Cruet, on view from August 21 through September 19. With a photographic aspect, focusing on the ecological state of coastal spaces, Dusk/Daybreak is a series of experimental digital prints that capture daylight transitions using bi-tone pigmented gradations.... Read more -
Anne Katrine Senstad - How We Live Together
SOLO EXHIBITION 17 Jul - 15 Aug 2020 How We Live Together, on view from July 17 through August 15, examines the value systems and ethics that define citizenry and our common history, as well as speculates on how future generations will work together to shape our common destiny. Senstad uses text, installation and color interactions to cast light on the resurgent tribalism of our times. Read more -
Annesta Le - Inner Space
SOLO EXHIBITION 10 Jan - 8 Feb 2020 Yi Gallery is delighted to present Inner Space, an exhibition of recent neon sculptures and drawings by Brooklyn-based artist Annesta Le. A full-color catalog will accompany the exhibition with a text by David Ebony. This will be the first artist exhibition presented in the gallery’s new space located inside the 56 Bogart Street art building in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
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Online + Off-site
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GJ Kimsunken - Works on Paper
ONLINE VIEWING ROOM 28 Jul - 10 Sep 2022 An online viewing room featuring GJ Kimsunken's luminous works on paper, concurrently running alongside the artist's solo exhibition of canvas works in the gallery space. ENTER VIEWING ROOM > Read more -
April Key Design
ONLINE VIEWING ROOM 30 Mar - 31 May 2022 Enter Online Viewing Room > April Key is a British artist and designer, who has been based in Istanbul, Turkey since 2013. Key's background and training in architecture (B.A., Edinburgh College of Art) provide firm foundation and inspiration for her interdisciplinary practice. Key maintains her workshop in the trendy Moda... Read more -
Artists for #StopAsianHate
Fundraising Exhibition 18 Mar - 18 May 2021 A horrific and heartbreaking surge in violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) is happening across the US. ‘Artists for #StopAsianHate’ is an initiative to raise funds in support of Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit organization leading the fight against anti-Asian racism and hate crimes in our communities. The... Read more -
The Art of Quarantine
#ArtKeepsGoing - Also On View via ARTSY 20 Apr - 10 Jun 2020 Yi Gallery is pleased to present The Art of Quarantine, an online group exhibition of works made during home quarantine between March and May, 2020. Responding to the conditions of self-isolation, the artists from different parts of the world in this exhibition have continued to create. These new, intimate and richly layered works reflect the psychological conditions surrounding the times we live in. The very act of continuing to work under constraints and social distancing suggests hope, solidarity, healing and possibilities. Read more -
Kind Of Green
191 Henry Street, New York, NY 10002 1 - 11 Jun 2019 #KindOfGreen
The first incarnation of Anne Katrine Senstad's memorial piece, The River of Migration, existed as a large outdoor light and land installation at Life is Art Foundation in 2010. The piece consisted of 72 solar-powered lights placed along a mountainside in Santa Rosa, CA. They formed a symbolic “human river” on what was historically Mexican land. Each of the 72 lights refers to a specific case where a person was brutally massacred by cartels after refusing to be used as a drug trafficker. Using light to create a memorial, Senstad illuminated the urgent migration issue with her symbolic river of light. The project honored the 72 nameless souls who died during the migration process and simultaneously spoke for all victims of migratory violence. The solar panel lights were lit from dusk till dawn, when most people cross borders illegally, and illustrated the very nature of the migratory action. The lights created a geographical mapping of the California landscape and served as a gestural, lyrical, and critical comment on migration policies, border wall politics, and the intensifying climate and political refugee crisis. Unnatural deaths of migrants are intimately connected to climate change and resource enclosures fueled by the growth of global wealth inequality. It is critical to revisit this work today as it raises awareness of the new, and more elaborate, forms of human trafficking as a global business as well as the financial structures on which it capitalizes.
Si Jie Loo’s wall installation, Privilege of Taste, consists of ceramic cups and sourced coffee powders that sit on two contrasting shelves. Through her work, she visualizes the complicated relationship between choice and the illusion or lack of choice and points to the unbalanced power between labor and consumption in our society. The Malaysian coffee that Loo grew up drinking is sweet tasting and light brown. It is made from a lower grade coffee powder mixed with hot water and condensed milk. There was no comparison between tasting the powdery coffee like residue and the “fair trade” coffee, grown in exotic African countries, served by gourmet coffee shops in developed economies. During colonial times, the British took the best quality coffee for exporting. The remnant of imperial power embodied in today’s global economy continues to enable the sale of higher-end Arabica coffee so that it can be enjoyed in the UK and other powerful and developed markets. Similarly, Malaysia exports higher-grade oil and gas and imports a lower grade from abroad for local use. The majority of people in her father’s village earned their living by rubber tapping - a process that involves collecting latex from a rubber tree. When Loo was a child, her grandparents and neighbors were asleep by 8pm and were up for work at 2 am so that they could collect rubber milk for processing. Although developing nations like Malaysia are known for supplying some of the best natural resources to the developed markets, the lives of the vast majority of laborers are nowhere close to the luxurious lifestyle of the people who benefit from their labor. Today, Loo is an artist living in the western world producing what is considered to be a luxury good. While making art is laborious and sometimes soul-baring, consuming art usually takes place in a clean, pristine, and often sterile white box by a privileged minority of wealthy clients. To Loo, how we taste coffee serves as a metaphor for the profound difference between the elitist contemporary art connoisseurship and the cultural producers who supply it.
Jamie Martinez’s oil painting on cotton, VR Unity Global Warming, is a direct response to the intensifying threat of climate change. An empty hot dog truck, a Chimera, a pyramid, flying parachutes, an isolated ladder, and mountains submerged by flood waters are among the elements that make up the surreal composition. Martinez’s process involves using Virtual Reality software to construct a collage of visual fragments. He then translates the VR simulation into an oil painting in order to document this new dream-like dimension that was created in the virtual world. Although a human figure is not visible in the painting, the cataclysmic scene suggests that anthropocentric activities on earth contribute to accelerated global temperature and rising sea levels, which will eventually lead to mass extinction. Actions to correct these problems must be massive and collective.
The SMOG FREE PROJECT is a long term campaign for clean air in which Daan Roosegaarde and his team of experts have created the world's first smog vacuum cleaner. The 7-meter tall SMOG FREE TOWER uses patented positive ionisation technology to produce smog free air in public spaces and allows people to breathe and experience clean air for free. Creating a tangible souvenir, Roosegaarde designed the SMOG FREE RING, which is comprised of compressed smog particles. Roosegaarde has been inspired by nature's gifts, such light emitting fireflies and jellyfish, from an early age. His fascination for nature and technology is reflected in his iconic works such as WATERLICHT (a virtual flood which shows the force of water), and SMART HIGHWAY (roads that charge throughout the day and glow at night). “A lot of the problems we’re facing—rising sea levels, air pollution—are, to me, an issue of bad design,” Roosegaarde tells Fortune in an interview. “We have created this current situation, now we have to design our way out of it.” To Roosegaarde, design is about setting goals for our future and creating standards to achieve that vision. The Dutch artist and entrepreneur has a name for it: ‘schoonheid’ meaning beautiful and clean. This concept takes shape in new social core values like clean air, clean water, and clean energy. Read more -
Victoria Borisova - Transformation of a Pattern
260 West 36th Street, New York, NY 10008 28 - 30 Sep 2018 Since 2016, Borisova has been developing a series of mixed media work to explore pattern transformation in relation to space. The series underscores the interplay between her two-dimensional and three-dimensional work, employing an expansive array of forms and materials, including canvas, pin, metal wire, wood and acrylic paint. For this show, she has increased both the scale and magnitude of her work.
The largest piece in the show Construction/Deconstruction (Transformation of a Sleeve) (2018) is a site-specific installation consisting of over a hundred pre-cut canvas pieces, assembled on location. The Garment District, a center of change and amalgamation of ideas and culture in New York City serves as the perfect backdrop for this exhibition.
Borisova was introduced to sewing and pattern drafting at a young age by her mother, a magnificent tailor. The sculptural quality of textiles deeply fascinates Borisova. A two-dimensional piece of fabric develops into a three-dimensional garment through a tailor’s skillful manipulation and construction. Five vivid collages in Pattern Obsession Combine (2016) and five new large paintings Untitled 1 - 5 (2018) in the show trace the theme of pattern transformation recurring in Borisova’s work.
The concept animating this body of work, according to Borisova, lies in the dualities between the traditional and new, the temporary and permanent, and the mobile and still. While not referencing specific artistic antecedents in Transformation of a Pattern, Borisova’s visual vocabulary draws connections to abstract art movements including constructivism, spatialism and Neo-Dada. Read more
