5 Things We Learned... Aaron Yassin
AARON YASSIN, DESIGNER AND CO-FOUNDER OF A+A STUDIO
NEW YORK, NY
Aaron Yassin is Culture A’s go-to technical partner. He’s a skilled artist and designer with a specialization in precision project management. He and Armand Graham partnered to launch A+A Studio, an award-winning multidisciplinary design practice whose current projects include a new construction beach house on the Jersey Shore and a cabin in the Catskills. Aaron’s broad-based practice incorporates fine art mediums -- drawing, painting, photography, video, architectural installation -- along with principle design forms including interior, product, and lighting design. With a career spanning 25 years, he has worked on international projects from Hong Kong to Switzerland to Qatar, as well as numerous projects in the United States. He has also exhibited artwork extensively at galleries and museums including the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, PS122 in NYC, The Juan B. Castagnino Art Museum in Rosario, Argentina, the Hong-Gah Musuem in Taipei, and the Central Academy of Fine Art in Beijing. Yassin studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where he earned his BFA, the Accademia di Belle Arti Pietro Vannucci, in Perugia, Italy, and the American University in Washington D.C. where he earned his MFA.
Here are 5 Things We Learned about Aaron.
What made you...you?
A passion for making things and curiosity. As a young child, I was always putting things together, constructing, building. I fell in love with the process. I made furniture, sculpture, paintings, and drawings. Growing up my father was the director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I met many artists - Beverly Pepper, Batuz, Sasson Soffer, Miriam Shapiro - and I was always wandering around the galleries. The museum felt like home and being exposed to objects from so many places and cultures were inspiring.
When are you happiest?
As an artist and designer, there are two things that make me happy. First, is creating something beautiful, elegant, transformative. Second is solving a design problem or challenge in a way that just works - for the client, the project and the design intent.
Would you rather have a muse or be a muse?
Have a muse, and my muse is always the design or art project I’m working on, which is the inspiration to create and to be inspired by possibility.
Who do you admire?
The makers, the craftspeople, and the unknown teams whose hands have made our world more beautiful from the stones of the Acropolis to the pottery of the Pueblo. Today we are so used to automated factory production and our lives are filled with perfectly formed plastic that we forget how handmade our world really is and that behind each set of hands is a person who existed someplace in time, who had a family and a community that we should remember and honor.
What is important?
To always be present - for my clients, my work, and my family. This is my goal every day.
Follow A+A’s work here and connect with Aaron on LinkedIn
Images from left to right: Aaron Yassin portrait by Sasha Maslov; Post-Infinity video installation detail; View 1 of Light Music photographed by Dan Cunningham; Beijing photo exhibition; View 2 of Light Music photographed by Dan Cunningham; View 3 of Light Music photographed by Dan Cunningham