Eden Yono

Eden Yono (b. 1981) lives and works in Chicago, where she received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Yono’s work has been exhibited in galleries and institutions including Museo de Arte Transfemenino Mexico City, Rhona Hoffman Chicago, Yono has also worked extensively with s+s project in Mexico City and has performed and exhibited at the Centro Cultural del México Contemporáneo. She was the 2016 ACRE Residency performance scholar.

ACRE performance Scholar; Cultus Artem Emerging Artist Grant.

Solo Exhibitions: Phantom, Gallery Also, Los Angeles, CA (2023); Flotsam, Shoe Bones, Salem, MA (2023); Impersonator, No Place, Columbus, OH (2023); Interdimensional Femmes, James Fuentes online, New York, NY (2022); Sarafemme, Produce Model, Chicago, IL (2018). 

Two-Person Exhibitions: UNDERSCORE, Milwaukee, WI (2024); VELVET, Leather Archives and Museum, Chicago, IL (2020); Queens Throat, Roots And Culture, Chicago, IL (2019); Ongoing Collaboration, S+S project space, Mexico City, MX (2019). 

Group Exhibitions: Maniquís, Museo Art Transfeminino (MAT), Mexico City (2026); HOLY MOTHER, CALL ME!, GAG Chicago (2026); Echoes of the Self: Contemporary Explorations in Self-Representation, Durden and Ray, Los Angeles (2026); HOOFPRINT, Chicago, IL (2024); Our House, The Plan, Chicago, IL (2024); Our Delicate Armor, Stasias, Chicago, IL (2024); Women On the verge, Rhona Hoffman, Chicago, IL (2023); Into the World There Came a Soul Called Ida, Adds Donna, Chicago, IL (2023); What Strange Water, What Strange Air, Tyger Tyger, Asheville, NC (2022); Come out and Play, BEERS, London, UK (2022); Drawers, Adult Contemporary, Nashville, TN (2022); THEM, Roots and Culture, Chicago, IL (2022).

A core principle of my teaching is helping first-year students trust the process of making and allow their work to lead them. Rather than approaching art with a fixed outcome, I encourage students to follow the material, the mark, and even the mistake as generative forces that reveal new directions. Missteps are not failures but openings—moments where the work begins to think alongside the artist. By paying attention to what the materials do and how they respond, students learn that making art is an experiential dialogue rather than a purely planned act. I emphasize that meaningful work often grows from the energies of one’s lived experience—not necessarily in an explicitly autobiographical way, but through the same emotional, cultural, and perceptual forces that shape our lives. In this way, the studio becomes a place where experimentation, reflection, and personal inquiry guide the development of an authentic artistic voice.