Rachel Youn, BFA in Studio Art ’17

Rachel Youn is an artist working across sculpture and installation. Their kinetic works often pair artificial plants with salvaged electric massagers — objects sourced through secondhand shopping that carry traces of aspiration and failure. These sculptures animate with a clumsy, erotic, and sometimes absurd vitality, evoking the strange intimacy of machines that simulate care. They earned their BFA at WashU and MFA at Yale University. Youn has exhibited work in China, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States, and more. They are a past recipient of the Stone & DeGuire Contemporary Art Award and the Great Rivers Biennial Award. They have attended residencies at Bemis Center, Lighthouse Works, and Vermont Studio Center, and their work has been reviewed in Art in America, Artsy, ARTnews, Vogue, LA Review of Books, Artillery Magazine, and Elephant, among others.