PRESENTATION: Michaela Yearwood Dan-Some Future Time Will Think of Us
Throughout paintings, works on paper, ceramics and site-specific mural and sound installations, Michaela Yearwood-Dan endeavors to build spaces of queer community, abundance, and joy. Yearwood-Dan’s singular visual language draws on a diverse range of influences, including Blackness, queerness, femininity, healing rituals, and carnival culture. Moving freely between media, Yearwood-Dan embeds botanical motifs and diaristic meditations within brushy abstract forms and heavy drips of paint.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Marianne Boesky Gallery
In the exhibition “Some Future Time Will Think of Us”, the new paintings, ceramics, works on paper, and site-specific mural and sound installation embody Michaela Yearwood-Dan’s ongoing investigation of contemporary culture and millennial political concerns, as well as her desire to build spaces of queer community, abundance, and joy. Moving freely between painting, drawing, and ceramics, Yearwood-Dan embeds botanical motifs and diaristic meditations within brushy, swirling 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. The exhibition features new paintings-including a monumental, multipanel painting, the artist’s largest to date-alongside works on paper and ceramics in the gallery’s space. In the gallery’s adjacent space at 509 W 24th Street, Yearwood-Dan will produce an immersive mural and accompanying sound installation. Lush and brightly hued, this work is at once personal and political, exemplifying Yearwood-Dan’s distinctive approach to engaging materials and colors for their symbolic associations. The handbuilt ceramic vessels are an unmistakable nod to women’s work and domesticity-as women have been the primary producers of ceramic goods throughout history. The pale pinks, brilliant oranges, deep violets, and rich blues employed throughout her work subtly echo colors of the lesbian and bisexual pride flags. Ceramic petals collaged into her paintings make reference to queer history-pansy petals reclaim a common slur for gay men, while green carnations recall the lapel pins popularized by Oscar Wilde and worn to signal queerness in England and the United States in the 19th century. Language intertwines with botanical motifs throughout Yearwood-Dan’s work: abstract habitats teem with painted plant life while live houseplants grow out of wall-mounted ceramics. Within the paintings, she inscribes lines of text-pulled from song lyrics, poetry, or her own diaristic writings. These meditations, appearing at various scales and degrees of legibility, are at once insightful and funny, confident, and questioning. Her words beckon the viewer into a vivid, welcoming world of paradox, play, and contemplation formed within an atmosphere of swirling forms and brilliant hues. 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.
Photo: Michaela Yearwood-Dan, In the crooks of your body, I find my religion, 2023, Oil, oil pastel, ink, paper and ceramic on canvas, Overall: 82 3/4 x 315 5/8 x 2 1/4 inches, 210 x 802 x 5.7 cm, Each panel: 82 3/4 x 63 x 2 1/4 inches, 210 x 160 x 5.7 cm, © Michaela Yearwood-Dan, Courtesy the artist and Marianne Boesky Gallery
Info: Marianne Boesky Gallery, 507 West 24th Street & 509 West 24th Street, New York, NY, USA, Duration: 6/4-6/5/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:00-18:00, https://marianneboeskygallery.com/
