Michaela Yearwood-Dan

Michaela Yearwood-Dan is a true millennial. She jokes that you can see it in the pastel pinks and floral motifs in her work. That identity is just as true to her as being Black, queer, and a woman. But during art school, she realised she was being pigeonholed into particular styles of painting because of her race, gender and sexuality. Her tutors and peers “found it too difficult to understand racial commentary beyond figural representation.” Against the expectation of people and symbols in representative work, Yearwood-Dan revels in the abstract. She fills her canvases with thick whooshes of colour – leaving meaning and possibility open.

Playfulness is at the centre of Yearwood-Dan’s practice. She loves working with giant oil pastels because she feels “like a young and free toddler whilst using them.” Her practice pokes fun at the seriousness of the artworld. She adds fragments of text to her paintings that act as anchors for the viewer – a moment of clarity amidst the swirling pastels and midnight blues. They are often popular music references. For example Kiss it Better (2022) both references a Rihanna song in the title, and includes the Destiny’s Child lyrics “ain’t no feeling like being free.” Yearwood-Dan finds true self-expression in the dance between popular culture and high art.