Contemporary British artist, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, tackles themes that include social issues like class, culture, race, and gender, as well as personal subjects like love and loss. Working predominately with paint and collage, her depictions are based on observations of society and self.
Born in South London in 1994, Yearwood-Dan completed her BA in Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton, before residing back in London. According to her website, being highly expressive and tied to her identity as a young British artist, her work is in continuous metamorphosis.
“I think that over time my artwork has become a bit more confident and refined via the imagery I use,” she added in an interview with Dateagle Art. “Regardless as to whether I’m creating abstract or figurative work, I think I approach each piece with a sense of confidence that steams from the knowing that I’m still learning and growing and if something doesn’t work out that it’s all part of the process towards me making something I’m truly happy with,” she adds.
Her paintings are often based on references to both the origins of traditional fine art and pop culture, including images of late-night food spots, overtly feminine stereotypes, and botanical influences within personalized visual narrative. As a contemporary artist working in a historically renowned art form, Yearwood-Dan’s work heavily focuses on method and technique, often borrowing and adapting traits from western, Japanese, and Chinese historical painting and craft.
“I think I do sometimes think of that work when I’m feeling moments of self-doubt,” says Yearwood-Dan, “conscious that interchanging between figurative and abstract may make it hard for people to establish my work as my own, however, I realize that the way I use paint there is a clear signifier that they share the same artist.”
