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BIO
Rachel Yurkovich was born in South Carolina but lived most of her developing years in Skopje, North Macedonia, and Prague, Czechia.
She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture and Painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 2014. With an interest in living things and their movement as a medium, her work often ends up as video. Rachel was granted the 2014 First Agnes Gund Traveling Award, which allowed her to travel to Chernobyl, Ukraine for filming in the Spring of 2016. Following this opportunity Rachel's work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at The Sculpture Center (Cleveland, OH), Bruce Gallery (Edinboro, PA), the Cleveland Botanical Garden (Cleveland, OH), and the Matthaei Botanical Gardens (Ann Arbor, MI). Her videos have also been featured in film festivals such as the Barcelona Planet Film Festival (Spain), The Berlin Flash Film Festival (Germany), and the Sandalia Sustainability Film Festival (Sassari, Italy).
Currently residing in Cleveland, Ohio, Rachel shares her life with her husband, son, dog, snake, and chickens, while also working in Interpretive Technology for the Cleveland Metroparks.
CURRICULUM VITAE
EDUCATION
2014 BFA, Sculpture and Painting, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
2019 Edison Price Lighting, Online & Cleveland, Ohio (Designing With Advanced Lighting, The Art of Lighting)
2015, 2017 Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland, Ohio (Digital Cinematography II, Intro to Art Therapy)
AWARDS / RESIDENCIES
2019 Best Cinematography, European International Film Festival, Saint Petersburg, Russia (for Black Grass)
2018 Swarm: Insects and Entomology for Artists, Ayatana Artists Research Program, Ottawa, Canada (July 5-11)
Best Documentary Feature Film, Barcelona Planet Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain (for Black Grass)
2015 Going Solo Award, The Art of Our Consumption, Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, Missouri
2014 First Agnes Gund Traveling Scholarship, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2023 Black Grass, Matthaei Botanical Gardens, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2022 Are You Civilized To Death?, Waterloo Arts Auxiliary Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio (Sept 2 - Oct 1)
2021 Black Grass, Guren Gallery, Cleveland Botanical Garden, Cleveland, Ohio
2019 Intercepted, H Space Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio
2018 Black Grass, Bruce Gallery, Edinboro, Pennsylvania
Black Grass, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio (catalogue)
2016 Rachel Yurkovich and Kate Ball, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023 It's an Honor to be Here, Decorative Arts Center of Ohio, Lancaster, Ohio
2022 Text Messages, YARDS Project, Cleveland, Ohio
Quaker Galleries by Curated Storefront, Akron, Ohio
2021 Abandoned: Time and Place, The Chateau Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky (Online Exhibition)
Uncompressed, Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery, Coastal Carolina University, Conway, South Carolina
Post-Industrial Labor, Tinnerman Lofts, Cleveland, Ohio
2020 Automated, Fringe Arts Bath, Online Exhibition
2019 Art in Times of Anxiety, A.D. Gallery at UNC Pembroke, Pembroke, North Carolina
ROY Family Reunion, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
Video in America, Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Blue Tape, Black Gloves, Museum of Contemporary Art, Cleveland, Ohio
2018 Food Glorious Food, The Art Center-Highland Park, Highland Park, Illinois
2017 Rooms to Let: CLE, PopEye Gallery House, Cleveland, Ohio
2016 I Eat Therefore I Am: SIPMA jurried '16, Artworks Trenton, Trenton, New Jersey
2015 Bottled Water: An Evolving Art Installation, Waterloo Arts, Cleveland, Ohio
The (Not So) Secret Life of Plants, Paul Robeson Gallery, Newark, New Jersey
FEAST: pleasure + hunger + ritual, Loudoun House Gallery, Lexington, Kentucky
ImageOHIO 15, ROY G BIV Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
The Art of Our Consumption, Foundry Art Centre, St. Charles, Missouri
Cringe, Aggregate Space Gallery, Oakland, California
2014 Beasties, Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol, California
Un-Natural Nature, SciArt Center, New York, New York
Immortal Kombat, SPACES Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio
VACANCY/NO VACANCY, Waterloo Arts, Cleveland, Ohio
Feminism Now 2014: Exposing the Truth, Project Site, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
360 Degrees of Sight + Sound, Cleveland Museum of Natural History Planetarium, Cleveland, Ohio
Divide, Dredge, Difference, Reinberger Galleries, Cleveland Institute of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
2013 Fluidity, Union Street Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
Face Off, FORUM Art Space, Cleveland, Ohio
In-Turn: Divided Attentions, Zygote Press, Cleveland, Ohio
FILM FESTIVALS
2022 Filmfest Dresden, Dresden, Germany
2019 European International Film Festival, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2018 Sandalia Sustainability Film Festival, Sassari, Italy
Berlin Flash Film Festival, Berlin, Germany
Free Range Film Festival, Wrenshall, Minnesota
Barcelona Planet Film Festival, Barcelona, Spain
2015 Davis International Film Festival, San Francisco and Davis, California
Echofluxx 15, Prague, Czech Republic
Glovebox Short Film & Animation Film Festival, Boston, Massachusetts
BIBLIOGRAPHY
2022 Shawn Mishak, "Local Artists Deconstruct Text Messages in Thought-Provoking Exhibition at the Yards Project",
SCENE Magazine, September 2022 Read Here
Liz Maugans, "Text Messages", CAN Journal, Fall 2022, p. 83 Read Here
Kayli Salzano, "The Garage, the Field, and the Table Enter Waterloo Arts", CAN Journal, Fall 2022, p. 80 Read Here
"Check Out Rachel Yurkovich's Story" (Interview), Voyage Ohio, July 14, 2022 Read Here
2020 Patrick Curry (Editor), "Foreign Bodies series by Rachel Yurkovich", The Ecological Citizen, Vol 3 No 2,
ISSN 2515-1967, April 2020, p. 179-181 Read Here
2019 Sarah Rose Sharp, "Attention Must Be Paid: ‘Intercepted’ moments at H-Space", The Cleveland Plain Dealer,
August 25, 2019. D2. Read Here
2018 Alexis Williams and Julya Hajnoczky, The Germinating Herbarium, Ayatana Artists Research Program, 2018, p. 62.65
Francis Quettier and Dora Tennant, "Rachel Yurkovich" (Interview), Biennial Edition, WomenCinemakers,
June 2018, p. 26-49 Read Here
Indra K. Lacis (Editor), W2S 2018 Catalogue, The Sculpture Center, July 2018, p. 2, 6-9 Read Here
2017 Dott von Schneider, "Stirring Video Footage of Chernobyl Disaster Scene Underscores Rachel Yurkovich's
Work in Cleveland", Cleveland Scene, August 16, 2017, p. 28 Read Here
2015 "Feast Artist Feature: Rachel Yurkovich" (Interview), LexingtonArtLeague.org, June, 2015 Read Here
2014 Dave Beck (Exhibition Director), IDEAS_14: Exhibition Catalog, International Digital Media & Art
Association, December 2014, Back Cover
Ben Walker (Publisher), “Issue 20”, Artist Portfolio Magazine, December 2014, Front Cover
Emma Snodgrass, “Featured Member of the Month” (Interview), SciArt Center, December 2014 Read Here
Danielle Kalamaras (Curator), Un-Natural Nature, SciArt Center, September 2014, p 62, 63
Brianna Van Dyke (Editor), Always We Begin Again, Ruminate Magazine, Spring 2014, p. 45, 78, Back Cover
2013 “Stunted Growth (Arbor Day)”, The Public Art Archive, September 2013.
Katlyn Foster (Editor), The Albion Review, Albion College 2013, p. 48 – 49
COLLECTIONS
2015 Waterloo Sculpture Garden, Cleveland, Ohio
ARTIST TALKS
2018 Artist Talk, Case Western Reserve University: Art, Eco-criticism and the Environment,
The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio
Artist Talk, Cleveland Institute of Art: Visual Arts Department, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, Ohio
2014 Emerging Artist Presentation, SculptureX Symposium 2014: The Social Political