OY/YO

COMING SOON

Across its galleries, the Cantor is enacting a new vision to act as a gathering place for diverse ideas and to present art in more contemporary ways. It now hopes that vision will extend just beyond its front steps through the museum’s newly-acquired sculpture OY/YO by artist Deborah Kass, which will be installed and unveiled to the public in early November.

Brooklyn-based painter, printmaker and sculptor Deborah Kass is known for working at the intersection of art history, popular culture and identity -- particularly related to Jewish culture and elements of difference – all three of which come together in OY/YO.  As such, she describes the piece as a distillation of everything she cares about in an unexpected form.

In particular, OY/YO explores the combination of imagery and language: “oy,” as in “oy vey,” is a Yiddish term of fatigue, resignation or woe; “yo,” is a greeting associated with African American slang. In addition, “yo” in Spanish means “I.” Each usage has been co-opted in popular culture. “The fact that this particular work resonates so beautifully in so many languages to so many communities is why I wanted to make it monumental,” Kass told the New York Times.

Read what Sam Whiting from the SF Chronicle says about the OY/YO.