Kennedy Yanko Makes Paint and Metal-Bending a Devotional Act
A suite of Mary Magdalene-inspired sculptures land at Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris.
Summary
Miami-based artist Kennedy Yanko unveils a new solo exhibition, 'Ce qui nous rassemble,' in Paris
The show features a new body of sculptures made of found metal scraps and paint skins, exploring mysticism, sexuality, sacredness, and devotion through the act of creation
Kennedy Yanko’s abstract sculptures are tense with history and possibility. Created from scrap metal parts wrapped with paint skins, each surface bears records of beauty and decay when shaped into luminous, veiled forms. Their histories aren’t erased, but transformed through the act of making, which makes Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine in Paris an apt stage for her latest creations.
The Miami-based artist debuts a new series of sculptures in Ce qui nous rassemble. Set amidst casts of architectural fragments from French churches and cathedrals, the show, which translates to “what brings us together,” explores creation as love, a devotional act that can both point back to the past and guide us through an age-old desire for transcendence.
Devotion and agency thematically ground the presentation, interwoven with ideas of mysticism and gender. This particular body of work is by Mary Magdalene, one of Christianity’s most controversial figures. Here Yanko reimagines her story to consider the many labels she occupies in the cultural imaginary, while highlighting the distortion of feminine sexual power throughout religious history.
It is unity, though, that persists. Yanko connects creation as a means of bodily agency — the desirer and desired — and through the act of material rupture and becoming, brings out the generative energies that bind us all. “She sees the human being in a similar way,” the exhibition text reads, “an energetic instrument whose capacity to create depends on intention, attention, and continual clearing and recalibration.”
Photo: Adrien Dirand
Photo: Adrien Dirand
Photo: Adrien Dirand
Photo: Adrien Dirand
Photo: Adrien Dirand
Photo: Adrien Dirand
Ce qui nous rassemble is now on view in Paris until January 3, 2027, as part of Art Basel Paris’ public program.
Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine
1 Pl. du Trocadéro et du 11 Novembre,
75116 Paris, France
