Rachel
Youens
Media:
Painting, Drawing
Studio Location:
43-01 21st Street, Long Island City, NY 11101
Room/Studio#
306A
Website:
Artist Bio:
Rachel Youens, B.F.A.,The School of the Art Institute of Chicago; MFA from Brooklyn College, CUNY; awarded a Pollock-Krasner Grant in 2005, a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008-09, and PSC CUNY Professional Development Grants in 2008, 2015, and 2019; artist residencies at the Fundación Valparaiso, Spain and Ragdale Foundation, Il. She has exhibited at 490 Atlantic, Sideshow Gallery, Valentine Gallery, Open Source, and Kuf Mold, Turkey. She has written art criticism for The Brooklyn Rail’s artscene section (1999-2005), Two Coats of Paint, artcritical, Cover Magazine, NY Arts Magazine, and NowChelsea. She currently teaches at LaGuardia Community College and at the Parsons School of Design.
Artist Statement:
I have long worked with structure, poetry, and ragged nature in my paintings, where my table is a reality filled with ‘modelli’ related to the Renaissance method of composing their historical and religious dramas. My modelli take the forms of vessels, cloth, varieties of breads, wood, leaves, and metal objects. By piling them, stacking them, strewing them, and layering them into compositions to paint, I find they acquire a character.