Internationally renowned artist Haegue Yang creates installations that include photographic, video, and sculptural elements and are informed by the artist’s philosophical and political investigations. Responding to the places where she exhibits, Yang creates site-specific new work that incorporates both the architecture of the exhibition space and materials gathered from the region. Her highly refined and yet completely particular sense of materiality, combined with an elegant sense of space and atmosphere, contribute to her enveloping and resonant installations.

Part of Yang’s appeal is the playful, highly attuned sensibility she brings to her selection of objects. Everything from miniblinds to brightly colored extension cords are fair game for inclusion, yet her installations have a striking formal focus and clarity. For her exhibition at the Aspen Art Museum, Yang has begun gathering clothing display racks as well as mountain river driftwood to use as armatures for a new series of light sculptures. The wood, pinecones, and other natural materials she has collected mark a new aspect of her work, one she will develop while working here as the Jane and Marc Nathanson Distinguished Artist in Residence. The Aspen Art Museum exhibition of Yang’s work will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue copublished with the Museum of Modern Art Oxford, which is staging a concurrent exhibition of Yang’s work in the summer of 2011.

Founded in 2008 by AAM National Council members Jane and Marc Nathanson, the Aspen Art Museum’s Jane and Marc Nathanson Distinguished Artist in Residence program furthers the museum’s goal of engaging the larger community with contemporary art. Each residency results in a new body of work produced by and exhibited at the AAM. Past Jane and Marc Nathanson Distinguished Artists are British-born Phil Collins, American artist Peter Coffin (2009), and New York–based artist Marlo Pascual (2010).

Haegue Yang was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1971 and lives and works in Berlin and Seoul. Yang represented the Republic of Korea in the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. Other recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Sala Rekalde, Bilbao, Spain; REDCAT, Los Angeles; and Portikus, Frankfurt. She also participated in the 2006 São Paulo Biennial; the 55th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh (2008); and the 2008 Turin Triennale in Italy.