Michaela Yearwood-Dan

Contemporary British painter Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s lush abstract paintings incorporate visual references to her West Indian identity that go beyond clichés of representation. Yearwood-Dan received her bachelor’s degree in fine art from the University of Brighton in 2016. Her work has been exhibited at such art fairs as 1-54 in London, FIAC in Paris, and FNB Art Joburg. Using a palette knife to apply paint in sumptuous, swirling strokes, Yearwood-Dan reflects on themes of social and personal identity, love, and loss. Borrowing from signifiers of millennial culture, Black identity, and feminism—including gold hoops, acrylic nails, plants, and snippets of dancehall lyrics—she signals the specificity of her personal narrative and defies generalized race- and gender-based categorization. Her paintings’ tropical palette of herbaceous greens, watery turquoise, guava pinks, and sunny golds recall the colors of the Caribbean carnival and nod to her heritage.