Kennedy Yanko (b. 1988, St. Louis, USA) is an American sculptor and installation artist whose work in salvaged metal and paint skin explores the relationship between material, gesture, and perception, dissolving the boundaries between painting and sculpture. Yanko sources discarded metal from junkyards and combines it with “paint skins” — sheets of latex paint poured onto the studio floor and transformed into flexible, fabric-like surfaces. Draped and moulded over the metal’s structural forms, these skins introduce a painterly dimension to her sculptural practice, reflecting an engagement with abstraction, material transformation, and the tension between industrial and organic forms. Her process is informed by Daoist principles, particularly ideas of balance, interconnectedness, and attention to what lies beyond the visible.
Yanko studied at the San Francisco Art Institute, graduating in 2008. Her work creates a dialogue between sculpture and painting, exploring the physical and conceptual possibilities of materials through compositions that combine weight, movement, and surface.
Recent solo exhibitions include Salon 94, New York, USA; Pace Prints, New York, USA; James Cohan, New York, USA; and Art Basel Meridians, Miami Beach, USA (2025); as well as Salon 94, Paris, France; Salon 94, Miami, USA; and Jeffrey Deitch, New York, USA (2023). She has participated in major international exhibitions including the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2026); the Albertina Modern, Vienna, Austria (2024); and the Bangkok Art Biennale, Bangkok, Thailand (2022).
Yanko has completed public sculpture commissions including Tilted Lift at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, USA, and Crystallized Tears at Arkansas State Park, Little Rock, USA (2023). She was Artist-in-Residence at the Rubell Museum, Miami, USA (2021), and received the Forum Award from Fountainhead Arts (2025) and the Colene Brown Art Prize from BRIC Arts Media (2019).
Her work is held in major public collections including the Albertina Museum (Vienna, Austria); the Brooklyn Museum (New York, USA); the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, USA); the Pérez Art Museum (Miami, USA); the National Museum of African American History and Culture (Washington, D.C., USA); the Norton Museum (West Palm Beach, USA); the Rubell Museum (Miami, USA); and the Ståhl Collection (Norrköping, Sweden).