Next Big Thing: Rachel Youn

Rachel Youn creates eerily mesmerizing sculptures from the mechanized castoffs of modern life—secondhand exercise bikes, baby rockers, and massagers sourced from Facebook Marketplace, eBay, and thrift stores—mixed with artificial foliage and flowers. “I’m interested in appliances that offer some sort of promise that if you buy this thing it’s going to change your life or fix something,” says Youn, whose wildly inventive works expose the conceit of self-improvement consumerism.

Material seduction: The artistic process always begins with the objects themselves. “It starts with me bringing appliances or machines into the studio and being present with them,” says Youn, who then uses “intuition” to “extend or expand the motion.” Lately, they have been taking things slowly, likening the kinetic movement to a seductive dance or the mating ritual of birds of paradise. “There’s an eroticism, but there’s also a little bit of torture in it, too.”

Up next: Youn, who has an MFA from Yale University, will present a public art project at the “Counterpublic” triennial exhibition in St. Louis and a solo exhibition with the downtown Manhattan gallery Sargent’s Daughters in 2026.

“Rachel creates kinetic sculptures that often feature fake exotic plants performing absurd actions, acting as stand-ins for us. They reflect both the excesses of human feelings and the dishonest promises of the American Dream,” says Amy Smith-Stewart, Chief Curator at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum.

A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Winter issue under the headline “Next Big Things.” Subscribe to the magazine.