Yanni Van Zijl

Bio / CV

Yanni Van Zijl was born in Melbourne, but now resides on the Sunshine Coast. Yanni is synonymous with environmental activism. She aims to create work that provoke the audience into a renewed awareness to issues like climate change and deforestation.

She creates experiences about humankind and explores environmental accountability through human actions and impacts. To achieve her aims, Yanni draws on a diverse range of media including video, photography, large scale installations, ceramics, sculpture and more recently performance. Recycled and repurposed, anything, even her own body, becomes matter for making art. Yanni aims to create works that are disruptive and questioning, generating awareness and conversation.

When not wearing her environmental art activist hat, Yanni makes ceramic works for the joy of being in tune with the material, these sculptures are studies in flow and form. She invites you to experience the solitude within the spaces created. Play is encouraged, the pieces have more than one possibility, when collectively arranged an entirely different outcome is achieved.

Exhibitions

Casuistry, Solo exhibition Noosa Regional Gallery, 2021

Casuistry Extreme, Judith Wright Centre, 2021

Casuistry Extreme, traveled North Qld with Flying Arts, 2021

Centre to Sea, exhibition Maroochydore Environment centre, 2018

Solo exhibition, That Place in Pomona, 2016

Sensual Landscape, 11 Squared Gallery – photographic exhibition, 2011

Education, Residencies and Prizes

Residency Maroochy Bush-lands Environment Centre, 2022

Finalist Du Rietz Award, 2021

Environment Award – SOTE , ‘Back from whence they came’, 2020

People’s Choice Award – taste of Art, Noosa Regional Gallery, 2019