Michaela Yearwood-Dan in her studio, London, UK, 2024 © Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Photo: Ollie Adegboye
In Residence: Michaela Yearwood-Dan
- 3 October – 27 November 2024
Hauser & Wirth Somerset is delighted to welcome Michaela Yearwood-Dan as our artist-in-residence in October 2024.
Based in London, UK, Yearwood-Dan’s multidisciplinary practice yields large-scale paintings, sculptural works, drawings and murals in sensuous palettes that invite viewers along on the artist’s journey of personal introspection through abstraction. She employs a range of techniques to conjure coruscating color and energetic form, drawing on personal experiences and her British Caribbean heritage to explore her own identity.
Through her paintings, works on paper, ceramics, and site-specific mural and sound installations, Yearwood-Dan endeavors to build spaces of queer community, abundance, and joy. The artist’s singular visual language draws on a diverse range of influences, including Blackness, queerness, femininity, and healing rituals. Moving freely between media, Yearwood-Dan embeds botanical motifs and diaristic meditations within brushy abstract forms and heavy drips of paint. From the monumental scale of her paintings to the more intimate scale of her ceramics and works on paper, Yearwood-Dan’s practice frequently reflects an inviting domesticity. Resisting any singular definition of identity, the artist explores the possibilities of creating spaces—physical, pastoral, metaphorical—that allow for unlimited and unbounded ways of being.
‘Michaela’s abundant botanical allusions and richly layered compositions embrace feminine beauty as a part of her exploration of sociopolitical and cultural references and ideas. Accessibility and community have been a powerful component of her practice for many years, which resonates with our gallery’s longstanding commitment to learning and artist-led programs.’—Manuela Wirth, President, Hauser & Wirth
Yearwood-Dan’s work is included in the group exhibition ‘When You See Me: Visibility in Contemporary Art/History,’ on view at Dallas Museum of Art TX until 13 April 2025. The exhibition features 50 artists, aiming to broaden official histories to allow for richer representations of those who have been traditionally excluded or erased. An exhibition of new paintings and drawings by the artist was recently on view at York Art Gallery, UK, made in response to Monet’s ‘The Water-Lily Pond,’ (1899) as part of The National Gallery’s bicentenary celebrations ‘National Treasures’ (2024).