Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s paintings lean towards abstract art. If there is imagery there, it’s buried under layers of paint, hidden in the folds of the canvas.
“I think that over time my artwork has become a bit more confident and refined via the imagery I use,” remarked the British artist 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 notes.
Indeed, Yearwood-Dan’s artwork seems to be in continuous metamorphosis—a buoyant exploration of heavy loaded themes such as class, culture, race, and gender. Born in South London in 1994, Yearwood-Dan completed her BA in Fine Art Painting at the University of Brighton, before returning to London. And with her identity very much tied with her whereabouts, her depictions are based on observations of society and self.
Yearwood-Dan admits that she’s conscious about her altering style and that interchanging between figurative and abstract may make it hard for people to establish her work as her own. “However,” she says, “I realize that the way I use paint there is a clear signifier that they share the same artist.”
Using predominately paint, with excursions into collage art, her work heavily focuses on method and technique, often borrowing and adapting traits from western, Japanese, and Chinese historical painting and craft. The result, more often than not, doesn’t conform to the norm.
