Aqua Yost is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose practice spans painting, movement, and performance. Working across roles as a production designer, art director, dancer, and painter, her work is informed by a lifelong engagement with the performing arts and a fluid dialogue between mediums.

Raised in Fremont, she trained in dance from an early age, studying ballet, tap, jazz, and contemporary forms, while growing up in a musical environment shaped by her father’s practice. She later studied at Ohio State University before completing a BA in Liberal Arts at California State University, Los Angeles, with a multidisciplinary focus across Arts and Sciences.

Yost’s work moves between abstraction and figuration, often centering on the female form as both subject and symbol. In series such as her ongoing “boob series,” the body is fragmented and recontextualised — simultaneously present and distanced—reflecting on themes of visibility, objectification, and the lived experience of the female body over time. These works explore the tension between how women are seen and the complexity that exists beyond what is visible.

Alongside these more concept-driven series, her abstract paintings emerge through an intuitive, process-led approach. Built through layers of gesture, observation, and response, they often reflect emotional states and lived experience, revealing meaning over time. Works such as Serial Lover embody this slower, reflective process, where personal narrative becomes embedded within the surface of the painting.

Her broader practice also engages with social and political themes, as seen in We Share Our Mother’s Health, which addresses issues surrounding food systems, capitalism, and corporate influence.

Her practice continues to evolve through a dialogue between intuition, material, and lived experience.