Amy Yao

Amy Yao (born June 1977, Los Angeles, California) is a musician, curator, and contemporary visual artist making work in many different mediums informed by ideas of waste, consumption, and identity.[1] She is represented by 47 Canal in New York City. Yao is a lecturer in visual arts at Princeton University in New Jersey.[2] Her sister Wendy Yao was proprietor of Ooga Booga art boutique and bookstore in Los Angeles.[3][4]

Music

In 1993, Yao and her sister Wendy were founding members of Emily's Sassy Lime, an all-Asian American teenage riot grrrl trio from Southern California.[1][3][4] The band dissolved in 1997.[5] They all played multiple instruments and switched instruments during performances.[6] Yao has been involved over the years with several different bands, frequently collaborating with Tobi Vail.

Art

Yao received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Art Center College of Design in California in 1999 and a Master of Fine Arts from Yale University in Connecticut in 2007.[2] Yao co-founded contemporary art gallery China Art Objects Galleries in 1999 with other graduates of Art Center.[7][8]

Yao has exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art (Eckhaus Latta: Possessed),[9] MoMA PS1 (Greater New York, 2010),[10] 47 Canal (Weeds of Indifference),[11] and Various Small Fires (Bay of Smokes).[12] Yao did a TRADES artist residency in Hawaii in 2017, and she was included in the 2019 Honolulu Biennial.[5]

Writing about Weeds of Indifference in Artforum, Chloe Wyma noted, "Refusing the readymade’s historical and contemporary postures—the cynical/ironic critique of the commodity form, the mystification of materials—Yao’s gnomic, desublimated sculptures are sometimes puzzling and not always easy to love. Nonetheless, their difficulties reflect honest questions: 'What is even real?' she asks, speaking of when 'the new authentic is used to eradicate what came before.'"[11]

Amy and Wendy Yao have also collaborated on curatorial projects, including their Art Swap Meet at Andrea Zittel's High Desert Test Sites.[1][13][14]

References

  1. ^ a b c Reese, Rachel (September 2013). "Interview with Wendy and Amy Yao" (PDF). Art Papers.
  2. ^ a b "Amy Yao - Lecturer in Visual Arts". princeton.edu. Princeton. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  3. ^ a b Alani, Anaheed (19 June 2012). "Why Can't I Be You: Wendy Yao". Rookie.
  4. ^ a b McNeill, Mark "Frosty" (14 September 2021). "Curator Wendy Yao on channeling your artistic enthusiasm". The Creative Independent.
  5. ^ a b Marius, Marley (12 March 2019). "At the Honolulu Biennial, Artist Amy Yao Examines Environments and Identity (With the Help of Some Algae)". Vogue.
  6. ^ Yeung, Bernice (18 July 1996). "Tart Teen Talkers". Metro.
  7. ^ Krygier, Irit (6 March 1999). "Report from L.A." Artnet.com Magazine.
  8. ^ Laird, Tessa (28 April 1999). "Letter from L.A." Artnet.com Magazine.
  9. ^ "Eckhaus Latta: Possessed". whitney.org. Whitney Museum of American Art. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  10. ^ "Greater New York". momaps1.org. MoMA PS1. Retrieved 11 August 2018.
  11. ^ a b Wyma, Chloe (September 2017). "Critic's Picks". artforum.com. Artforum.
  12. ^ Mizota, Sharon (11 February 2016). "Amy Yao's art of contamination: Not everything is as perfect as it seems". Los Angeles Times.
  13. ^ Taft, Catherine (11 May 2006). "Just Desert". Artforum.
  14. ^ "Amy and Wendy Yao's Art Swap Meet". High Desert Test Sites. 12 May 2007.