Seoul, South Korea, 1971.

Lives and works in New York.

Anicka Yi is a conceptual artist. She was born in Seoul, but from a very young age she moved with her family to the United States and studied at Hunter College. After graduations she moved to London. There she worked as a fashion stylist and copywriter. Her interest in art began at the age of 30 and her love for perfumery and science make her artwork an interrelation of science, cooking and fragrances. Particularly noteworthy are its installations in which it involves the senses, especially smell. She is also known for her collaborations with chemists and biologists.

Her work is characterized for using unusual materials, such as living and perishable materials: canvases made of soap, pieces of stainless steel, fish oil pills, tempura-fried flowers, etc. She manipulates these materials for her works, prevailing in her artistic pieces the smell, the tactile and the perishable. For Anicka, writing is also an important part of her artistic activity, in her own words: “Writing is one of my main tools. I often discover more thoughts about the works through writing. The syntax, the structure of the sentences... are things that help a lot. I write a lot about the background of my sculptures, as if they were characters in a novel or a script. I share these writings with my friends, but no one else sees them. I'm not a very visual person. I don't think in pictures. I don't do sketches. I don't use visual references as much as I should. It is a big disadvantage for me. The writing does not capture the idea of the work as a sketch would. So maybe I'm not working more productively. My starting point is verbal.”.

Anicka has won several awards such as the Guggenheim Hugo Boss Award (2016) and the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2011).

Her solo exhibitions: Excuse Me, Your Necklace is Leaking, Green Gallery Milwaukee 2011; Sous-Vide 47 Channel, New York 2011; Denail, Larsfedrich Berlin 2013; Divore 47 Channel New York 2014; 7,070,430K of Digital Spit Kunsthalle Basel Switzerland 2015; LIFE is Cheap Solomon R. Gugenheim Museum New York 2017; We have never been singles, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels 2019; In love with the world, Hyundai Commission, Tate Modern Turbine Hall, London 2021.

Her most notable collective exhibitions: Whitney Biennial 12th Biennale de Lyon; Studiolo Zurich; Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami; Museum of Contemporary Art, Basel; Sculpture Center New York; White Columns New York; West Street Gallery New York.