Nina Yankowitz retrospective at MFA St. Petersburg

The Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg presents “Nina Yankowitz | In the Out/Out the In,” a landmark retrospective celebrating the career of pioneering multimedia artist Nina Yankowitz (b. 1946) spanning six decades of her work. On view June 21 to September 21, 2025, the exhibition offers an expansive look at Yankowitz’ medium-bending practice through more than 30 works, which merge painting, textiles, sound, and technology to invite the viewer into her thought-provoking world.

Born in New Jersey, Yankowitz was immersed in the vibrant cultural scenes of Greenwich Village and Woodstock during the 1960s. Her early exposure to Group 212—a collective of artists, musicians and poets in Woodstock—fueled her embrace of multimedia approaches, and laid the groundwork for a future career of innovation and fearlessness in the face of cultural norms. 212 gave birth to her first ever collaborative work in 1967–8, Oh Say Can You See, which will be shown in this exhibition, where Yankowitz based the dents and drapes of her fabric on the synth chords played by fellow collective member Phil Harmonic (a.k.a Ken Werner).

Just a few years after graduating from the School of Visual Arts, Yankowitz was selected to participate in the Whitney Biennial in 1973. By the mid-1970s, she became involved with a pioneering group of feminist artists and writers who would go on to form the Heresies Collective. From 1977 to 1993, they published “Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art and Politics,” a radical platform aimed at confronting and dismantling patriarchal structures within the art world.

Born from these alternative groups, Yankowitz uses the phrase In the Out/Out the In to describe her goals of making her art as accessible as possible—bringing the so-called “outside” “in.” However, it also suggests the sense of imbalance generated by the artist’s work. Her “Cantilever” series, for example, suggests paintings crashing through walls, causing disorientation that can be almost visceral. An audio work from 1974 titled Lips Knees Neck Elbows Chest Rear urges visitors to engage with their bodies.

The exhibition will include early draped, shirred, and pleated paintings, as well as the “Dilated Grain Readings” series and her later “scanning” works, which function almost as musical scores. It will also include Yankowitz’s experimental ceramics, such as Hell’s Breath (1981), which debuted at MoMA PS1.

The retrospective follows Yankowitz’s work as a founding member of the feminist Heresies Collective, sharpening her artistic focus on feminist ideals in the face of institutional patriarchy. Her series like “Draped” and “Pleated Paintings” of the early 70s play with the idea of “women’s work,” while also drawing on the high density of fabric shops in Manhattan’s SoHo at the time. She refused to be defined by “domestic” sewing techniques, instead turning to the unusual by collaborating with sailboat makers for their distinctive and strong embroidery abilities.

“My work has always dealt with challenging formal boundaries in painting or my mounting more recent multimedia installations; I have probed the material, political, and sonic nature of abstract art when addressing social justice-for-all concerns throughout my six-decade career,” Nina Yankowitz said. “It’s been a profound experience to realize the arc of time that has occurred while working on my retrospective exhibit with curator Katherine Pill at St. Pete Museum of Art. I love the collaborative ways we together have designed the gallery spaces via color and also appreciate Katherine’s unique ability to bring my works into other museum programs. I’m excited to see the merging time frames from then to now for visitors to travel along my creative journeys.”

Yankowitz’s contributions have been recognized by major institutions, with her works held in the collections of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, and many more.

“It’s time to course-correct, and ensure that Nina Yankowitz and her expansive career is showcased in retrospective form. It’s nothing short of an honor to work with this artist, who continues to push media boundaries to this day,” Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Katherine Pill said.

“Nina Yankowitz: In the Out/Out the In” is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, and curated by Katherine Pill. Following its debut in Florida, the exhibition will travel to the Parrish Art Museum in Water Mill, New York, where it will be presented by Chief Curator Corinne Erni and Associate Curator Scout Hutchinson.

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 Bass Museum of Art, Miami, FL; P.S.1, New York; 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 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.