Yankus, Marc

Marc Yankus, New York, USA

Originally trained as a painter, and then working as a collage artist, it was not unitl 10 years ago that Marc Yankus began incorporating his own photographs into his artwork. However, when he did so, it marked a truning point in his career. In many of Yankus' photographs, textures scanned from old tintypes, books and other objects are digitally layered on top of the artists's original images. This superimposition of the old and the new, serves as a metaphor for Yankus' wider conceptual interests. Throughout his work, the artist oscillates not only between the old and the new, the past and the present, but also between figuration and landscape. He Establishes a rhythm and play between timeless portraits and beautifully still and quiet landscapes and cityscapes. Hushed, introspective, and at turn even melancholic, this body of work is ultimately a reflection of the artist's personal past and his passage in to the present time. Marc Yankus' fine art and published experience span a period of more than twenty-five years. His work has been included in exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, New York; Exit Art, New York City; The Library of Congress, Washington, DC; and recently at ClampArt, New York City. Yankus' artwork has graced the covers of books by Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth, and Alan Hollinghurst, among many others.

His images have also been used for theatrical posters for such acclaimed Broadway shows as Jane Eyre; August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom; and John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize winning play, Doubt. Additionally, Yankus' photographs have appeared both on the covers and inside the pages of numerous publications ranging from The Atlantic Monthly to Photo District News.

Public Collections

New York Historical Society
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA
Library of Congress, Department of Prints and Photographs, Washington, DC, USA

Links for Marc Yankus