Anicka Yi Anicka Yi

Anicka Yi

Born 1971 in Seoul, South Korea. Lives and works in New York, NY.
Ppp Okeclaircirautour Cfp 2023 Avant Lorage 146 E
Ok Cfp 2023 Avant Lorage 282 E
Willbl Day Two 66 Copy
Willbl Day Two 8
110 Q1A2176 Copy
Lifestyle Wars Install 1 Copy
Lifestyle Wars Install 14 Copy
2 Copy
Eleanor Coppola Copy
Ay 7 Copy
Exhibition view: Avant l'orage, Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris, 2023. © Anicka Yi / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023. Photo by Aurélien Mole, courtesy of the Pinault Collection.

Introduction

Known for her multi-sensory approach to art making, Anicka Yi has radically expanded the notion of what an artwork can be and transformed exhibitions into embodied encounters. Drawing on a notion of otherness rooted in scent and taste, atypical sensoria for the visual arts realm, Yi’s works allow her audience to viscerally experience complex issues relating to social prejudice, racism, ecology, climate change, biological extinction, machines and machine learning.

Full biography

Selected works

example
Anicka Yi
Skeletons All The Way Down, 2024
High density foam, distressed chrome finish
94 x 116,8 x 9,5 cm
example
Anicka Yi
£†K§ñ, 2023
Acrylic, UV print, aluminum artist's frame
121,9 x 162,6 x 3,8 cm
example
Anicka Yi
ÖñK§LMñ†, 2023
Acrylic, UV print, aluminum artist's frame
121,9 x 162,6 x 3,8 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Öþ†KL†L×ñ, 2023
Acrylic, UV print, aluminum artist's frame
121,9 x 162,6 x 3,8 cm
example
Anicka Yi
ÄMñ†KW†RLL, 2023
Acrylic, UV print, aluminum artist's frame
121,9 x 162,6 x 3,8 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Late Classical XX, 2022

Tempura fried flowers, resin, Plexiglas, stainless steel shelves, chrome plated dumbbells
121,9 x 81,3 x 25,4 cm
example
Anicka Yi
LKñL§RHR†ßñ§, 2023
Acrylic, UV print, aluminum artist's frame
170,8 x 140,3 x 3,8 cm
example
Anicka Yi
L£†R0ñW†R, 2023
Acrylic, UV print, aluminum artist's frame
170,8 x 140,3 x 3,8 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Bubble Coronation, 2023
Kelp, aquazol, glycerin, crepeline, LED lights and animatronic insect
163,8 x 71,1 x 61 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Vibrio Fischeri, 2023
Kelp, aquazol, glycerin, crepeline, acrylic, LED lights and animatronic insect
158,8 x 79,4 x 64,1 cm
example
Anicka Yi
When Obstacles Become Pathways, 2023
Cherry wood, teak oil, resin, acrylic paint
101,6 x 182,9 x 12,7 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Late Classical XIV, 2022
Tempura fried flowers, resin, Plexiglas, stainless steel shelves, chrome plated dumbbells
121,9 x 81,3 x 24,1 cm
example
Anicka Yi
The Year 1905, 2013
Tempura fried flowers, resin, Plexiglas, stainless steel shelves, chrome plated dumbbells
121,9 x 81,3 x 15,2 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Operation Warp Speed, 2022
Silicone, monofilament, silk flowers, plywood, high density urethane foam, aluminum
106,7 x 71,1 x 10,2 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Moon Feet, 2017
Silicone, foam, flocking, artificial flowers
93,3 x 182,9 x 15,9 cm
example
Anicka Yi
All Islands Are Connected Underwater, 2021
High density foam, polyurethane paint, stainless steel, resin, glass
116,8 x 139 x 16,7 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Eye of the Fly, 2019
Acrylic, UV prints, LED lights, glass, resin, tubing
127 x 101,6 x 12,7 cm
example
Anicka Yi
Violence Boiling Over, 2019
High density foam, resin, urethane paint, frame
91,4 x 121,9 x 10,2 cm
example
Anicka Yi
When Species Meet Part 3 (Sessile), 2016
Acrylic pipes and fittings, faux fur, lab hardware, wire, foam, epoxy resin, paint, aquarium pebbles, imitation pearls
72 x 72 x 72 cm

Gallery Exhibitions

A Shimmer Through The Quantum Foam Anicka Yi

A Shimmer Through The Quantum Foam

Anicka Yi
A Shimmer Through The Quantum Foam is Anicka Yi's first solo exhibition with the gallery.
September 15—October 21, 2023
Esther Schipper, Berlin

External Exhibitions

The Postnatal Egg Anicka Yi

The Postnatal Egg

Anicka Yi
For the collection of kelp pods exhibited at Indianapolis Museum of Art, The Postnatal Egg, Anicka Yi was pondering this state of amorphous potency, imaging a perpetual meta-egg that could traverse different...
March 15—September 17, 2023
Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields
Avant l'orage with works by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre Huyghe, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané and Anicka Yi

Avant l'orage

with works by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre Huyghe, Daniel Steegmann Mangrané and Anicka Yi
Avant l’orage invites visitors on a journey from shadow to light, through installations and works, some iconic, others new, by some fifteen artists, throughout the spaces of the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection. With works by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre...
February 8—September 18, 2023
Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection, Paris
Metaspore Anicka Yi

Metaspore

Anicka Yi
Featuring more than twenty installations from 2010 until today, Metaspore at Pirelli HangarBicocca, conceived as a sensory and synesthetic experience, questions the boundaries between natural and synthetic, human and non-human, materiality and...
February 24—August 7, 2022
Pirelli HangarBicocca, Milan
In Love With The World Anicka Yi

In Love With The World

Anicka Yi
What would it feel like to share the world with machines that could live in the wild and evolve on their own?
October 12, 2021—February 6, 2022
Hyundai Commission, Turbine Hall, Tate Modern, London
May You Live In Interesting Times

May You Live In Interesting Times

Destabilising demarcations between the organic and the synthetic, science and fiction, human and non-human, Anicka Yi’s protean creations are undergirded by what the artist describes as the “biopolitics of the senses”.
May 11—November 24, 2019
58th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

Featured stories

Anicka Yi: It's not enough to understand a word ... A conversation by Noemi Smolik Kunstforum
News

Anicka Yi: It's not enough to understand a word ... A conversation by Noemi Smolik

Kunstforum
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Life in the Sea is like a Verb Spike Art Magazine
News

Life in the Sea is like a Verb

Spike Art Magazine
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The 10 best booths at Paris+ par Art Basel Artsy
News

The 10 best booths at Paris+ par Art Basel

Artsy
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Berlin is the meeting place this fall for the international contemporary art scene Neue Zürcher Zeitung
News

Berlin is the meeting place this fall for the international contemporary art scene

Neue Zürcher Zeitung
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Algorithms in the primordial soup: Anicka Yi exhibits at Galerie Esther Schipper Berliner Zeitung
News

Algorithms in the primordial soup: Anicka Yi exhibits at Galerie Esther Schipper

Berliner Zeitung
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10 Must-See Shows at Berlin Art Week 2023 Artsy
News

10 Must-See Shows at Berlin Art Week 2023

Artsy
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5 Shows On Our Radar Spike Art Magazine
News

5 Shows On Our Radar

Spike Art Magazine
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Anicka Yi in 'Bodies of Knowledge' Art21
News

Anicka Yi in "Bodies of Knowledge"

Art21
In Anicka Yi’s Brooklyn studio, the rhythmic bubbling of a deep fryer is interrupted by the crackling sound of batter-dipped flowers crispening in the hot oil. Drawn to their visual qualities and...
Artist Talk with Anicka Yi at DEMO2023 New Museum, New York
New Museum Theater, New York

Artist Talk with Anicka Yi at DEMO2023

New Museum, New York
Thursday June 22, 5 - 5:45 pm
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Now Representing – Anicka Yi
News

Now Representing – Anicka Yi

Esther Schipper is delighted to announce the representation of Anicka Yi.

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Anicka Yi’s paintings are living, autonomous creatures Text by Megan Hullander, Interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist
News

Anicka Yi’s paintings are living, autonomous creatures

Text by Megan Hullander, Interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist
December 12, 2022
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Anicka Yi: Intelligent floating machines inspired by nature TED Talk
News

Anicka Yi: Intelligent floating machines inspired by nature

TED Talk

Taking cues from soft robotics and the natural world, conceptual artist Anicka Yi builds lighter-than-air machines that roam and react like autonomous life forms. Her floating "aerobes" inspire us to think about new ways of living with machines -- and to ponder how they could evolve into living creatures. "What if our machines could be more than just our tools, and instead, a new type of companion species?" she asks.

August 19, 2022
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Anicka Yi: ‘I’m Very, Very Squeamish With Culture’ ArtReview
News

Anicka Yi: ‘I’m Very, Very Squeamish With Culture’

ArtReview
October 11, 2021
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Anicka Yi On Filling The Turbine Hall With Her Sensual Chemistry Experiments Vogue UK
News

Anicka Yi On Filling The Turbine Hall With Her Sensual Chemistry Experiments

Vogue UK
October 8, 2021
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Films

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A Shimmer Through The Quantum Foam Anicka Yi

A Shimmer Through The Quantum Foam

Anicka Yi