Retrospective Exhibition of Nina Yankowitz: In the Out/Out the In Comes to the Parrish Art Museum
Yankowitz came to prominence in the 1960s in New York, where she experimented with the material and technical possibilities of canvas, cardboard, paint sprayers, and sewing equipment to create abstract paintings. A founding member of the Heresies Collective (1976–1993), Yankowitz’s early approach to painting was informed by the feminist movement, Process art, and the legacy of Abstract Expressionism. She also participated in the countercultural scenes of Greenwich Village and upstate New York, and her collaborations with the experimental Group 212 Inter-Media Project encouraged her interest in performance and new media. In the following decades, her practice branched out into sculpture, sound and video art, and interactive installations that harnessed the technology behind social media platforms and video games.
“Nina Yankowitz has never stopped challenging the limits of artistic practice. She is an artist whose work resists categories by symbolically weaving painting, sculpture, sound, performance, and technology in transformative ways. Nina’s commitment to inclusiveness and social justice has never wavered. She has long been our neighbor and a close friend to the Parrish Art Museum. We are delighted to participate in her duly deserved first museum retrospective and to recognize her deep ties to our community on Long Island’s East End, where she has lived, worked, and enriched all of us through her art and magical personality for decades,” said Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, Executive Director of the Parrish Art Museum.
Nina Yankowitz (American, b. 1946). Dilated Grain Reading: Scanning Reds and Blues, 1973. extruded acrylic and Flashe on linen, 50 x 109 in. Courtesy of the Artist.
The exhibition traces her career through major series and landmark works, from her early draped and pleated canvases to her Dilated Grain Readings (1973–77), which translate synesthetic experiences into painted form. Highlights include Lips Knees Neck Elbows Chest Rear (1974), an audio piece encouraging embodied awareness; Hell’s Breath (1982), a monumental ceramic tile mural not seen since its debut at MoMA PS1; Criss Crossing the Divine (2016), an interactive meditation on world religions; and Closing Bell (2025), a large-scale installation and commentary on climate catastrophe and migration crises realized in collaboration with more than 30 visual artists, poets, and musicians. Throughout her career, viewer participation and immersive environments have been critical elements of her work, informing, in her words, “Everything I do. There’s no beginning, no end. You’re just in it, the whole surround.”
“I am very excited to be working with Nina again, this time for her comprehensive retrospective, which is long overdue. Preparing an exhibition with Nina is always an adventure, moving through ideas, space, and sound. Her interpretation of works from the collection and reconfiguration of gallery space for the Artists Choose Parrish exhibition in 2023 was unique. I expect this installation to be no less invigorating, moving from her draped canvases to cantilevered works and interactive media pieces, as well as her brand new collaborative installation addressing the climate crisis—always thinking about the times we live in, and always with a humorous touch,” said Corinne Erni, Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator of Art and Education, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs.
The Parrish presentation underscores Yankowitz’s long-standing connection to the East End. Beginning in the 1970s, she spent time in the region with fellow artists Hermine Freed, Barbara Kruger, Joan Semmel, Marjorie Strider, and Michelle Stuart. The sounds of local birds and insects directly informed her early sound works. In 1993, she purchased a home in Sag Harbor, where she continues to live and work.
Artist Nina Yankowitz said, “I am honored to have my story told and presented at the Parrish Art Museum by the creative Chief Curator Corinne Erni and Associate Curator Scout Hutchinson. Working with them has proven to be a special Curator/Artist experience. The exhibition, supported by talented Museum Director Mónica Ramírez-Montagut, shows her ability to reach the community, garner committed generosity from her board, as well as associated galleries and individual supporters, which I personally appreciate. I thank the staff for their devoted behind-the-scenes museum work.”
Nina Yankowitz (American, b. 1946). Oh Say Can You See – A Draped Sound Painting, 1967-68, latex paint on cotton duck, audio by Phil Harmonic a.k.a. Ken Werner – to be played on floor speaker, 48 x 120 x 6 in. Courtesy of Artist.
Nina Yankowitz: In the Out/Out the In is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Fla., and is curated by Katherine Pill, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art. The presentation at the Parrish is organized by Corinne Erni, Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator, Art and Education, with Scout Hutchinson, Associate Curator of Exhibitions. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, with contributions from scholar Glenn Adamson, who expands on his 2022 Art in America article on Yankowitz; Corinne Erni, who emphasizes her relevance to the East End art community; Barbara London, founding curator of video art at MoMA, who explores the function of sound in Yankowitz’s practice; MFA St. Petersburg curator Katherine Pill, who highlights the importance of collaboration in the artist’s work.
Exhibition Support
The presentation of Nina Yankowitz: In the Out/Out the In at the Parrish Art Museum is made possible thanks to the generous support of Eric Firestone Gallery; Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; Sherri and Darren Cohen; Sandy and Stephen Perlbinder; Jane Wesman and Donald Savelson; The Evelyn Toll Family Foundation; and René and Marie-France Kern.
The Parrish Art Museum’s programs are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York State Legislature, and by the property taxpayers from the Southampton School District and the Tuckahoe Common School District.
About Nina Yankowitz
Born and raised in New Jersey, Yankowitz studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York, graduating from the program in 1969. That same year, she had her first one-person exhibition at New York’s Kornblee Gallery and has since been featured in exhibitions at institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago; the Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art of Ukraine, Kyiv; Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Her work can be found in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, Richmond; and the Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA. Yankowitz has held teaching positions at the School of Visual Arts and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In 2024, she was inducted into the New York Foundation for the Arts’ Hall of Fame.
