John Y. Wind | Artist

Thanks to WHYY and Peter Crimmins for the great coverage of my show. I especially appreciated the extra research and deep dive into the first two Whiskey Rebellions preceding my own!

Artist’s whiskey decanters complicate Revolutionary War figures

I’m so pleased to be participating in the 9th Bridgette Mayer Gallery benefit exhibition, this year supporting Help Us Adopt and the Dina Wind Art Foundation~

Portrait of G. Washington is an extension of my Whiskey Rebellion exhibition currently on view at the Museum of the American Revolution. It features a photograph of the vintage decanter that I used in the sculpture series, collaged onto distressed, manufactured camouflage canvas. Inspired by Jasper Johns and Hew Locke, I stenciled the work’s title onto the canvas and added 3-dimensional message buttons and pins to Washington’s coat, engaging in dialogue with the Founding Father. Finally, I poured a layer of epoxy resin over the whole panel, to secure the elements and add an overall sheen and transformation.”

My thanks to Molly Given and Metro Philly for the great article about Whiskey Rebellion at the Museum of the American Revolution! You captured the story and ideas behind the work so well.

🙏🥃🏳️‍🌈⭐️

How John Y. Wind uses art to revolutionize history – Metro Philadelphia

The Museum of the American Revolution is pleased to present Whiskey Rebellion, an installation of sculptures by Philadelphia artist John Y. Wind in the second-floor Oneida Indian Nation Atrium. In his first solo museum exhibition, Wind transforms hand-painted, ceramic decanters of key figures from the American Revolution that were produced by the Jim Beam Distilling Company and their competitors in the 1960s-70s to circumvent a new federal whiskey tax and tap into Bicentennial fever. Coinciding with Pride month, the show recontextualizes these figures while exploring issues of masculinity, heroism, diversity, and the very notion of commemoration through a 21st century lens.

On view April 26-June 1, 2024 at InLiquid Gallery: “The Naked Show”

“The Naked Show” brings together a group of fifteen InLiquid member artists whose work explores the many meanings of exposed human skin. Naked skin is the permeable and sensitive boundary between ourselves and the outside world, a border of endless fascination. Representations of nakedness take many forms and meanings, evoking intimacy, sensuality, beauty, rawness, voyeurism, censorship, vulnerability, and innocence. Seen here through painting, photography, and sculpture, each artist addresses the myriad limitations and potentials of our infinitely varied human bodies.

John Y. Wind contributes his 2013 sculpture My Surfboard (The Secret Life of Felix Jesus Consalvos). An upright vintage surfboard densely covered with stickers and other ephemera, the front presents a colorful pop art face to the public, while the back obsesses privately about erotic desire and matters of the flesh.

In anticipation of a project I’ll be doing with the Rosenbach Museum & Library next year, I was invited to be a reader on Bloomsday–the day during which James Joyce’s Ulysses takes place. Well, it took a few days of practice to get the flow of the words, and just as long to understand a bit of what I was reading. Here is my two-page bit~ Thanks to the Museum for the honor & the opportunity!

Gallery talk with juror Doug Bucci at Woodmere Art Museum. I appreciate the ‘Dutch’ reference and the opportunity to share about my work~