Anicka Yi

Born in 1971, in South Korea
Lives and works in New-York (United States)

Drawing on research by scientists, biologists and perfumers, Anicka Yi has produced a unique body of work over the past 12 years, at the intersection of politics and macrobiotics.

Biography

Yi was born in South Korea. From the age of two she has lived in the United States, first in Alabama, then in California. She has said that she grew up in a Korean-American home. After graduating from Hunter College (New York), she moved to London where she worked for several years as a fashion stylist and advertising copywriter. At the age of 30 she began to experiment with art while developing an interest in perfumery and science.

Yi is known for working with various materials including ants, fur, body fluids and bacteria, in installations, sculptures and films. The result of an alchemic process of experimentation, exploring often incompatible materials, her works are immersive, using 3D video or olfactory environments. While seeking to break free from the supremacy of the visual medium, Yi is interested in the way that sense and perception are culturally conditioned and speak to this subject of "a biopolitics of the senses”.

Her exhibition You can call me F, conceived in 2015 with biologist Tal Danino and presented at The Kitchen in New York, involved cultivating bacteria to answer the question What does feminism smell like?. Yi and Danino pursued this work through a residency at MIT on the theme of The Art and Science of Bacteria.
In 2016, Yi received the Hugo Boss prize from the Guggenheim Museum in New York. There, in 2017, she presented her first exhibition, Life is Cheap, which explored her “socio-political interest in the olfactive”.

Bibliographic resources

Pys, Pavel, "Anicka Yi : A Rancid Portrait of a Practice". L'Officiel Art, n° 21, p. 46-61, mars 2017.

Simonini, Ross, Yi, Anicka, "Anicka Yi in the Studio". Art in America : an illustrated quarterly, p. 100-107, avril 2017.

Yi, Anicka, "How I Solved It : Transforming Ideas into Smells". newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/how-i-solvedit-transforming-ideas-into-smells, [consulté le 8 février 2018], 09/05/2017.

Pearce, Naomi, "Reading the Air". Art review, p. 94-98, décembre 2015.

Upitis, Alise, Ha, Paul, Jones, Caroline A....[et al]. Anicka Yi : 6.070.430K of digital spit [exposition,Cambridge, Etats-Unis, Mit list visual art center, May 22 - July 26, 2015]. Milano : Mousse publishing, 2015.

In The Collection

The Flavor Genome, 2016

Anicka Yi

Exhibition of the Collection

From 11 April 2018 to 27 August 2018

In tune with the world

For the sixth selection of the Collection, the exhibition "In Tune with the World" unveils throughout the galleries of the Frank Gehry building a new choice of artists, of several different mediums, bringing together modern and contemporary works, most of which have never before been exhibited in these spaces.

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Anicka Yi

In The Collection

In tune with the world

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In The Collection

In tune with the world

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the YOUNG PASS