What Does It Take to Be a Rising Artist Today? (with Michaela Yearwood-Dan)
Michaela Yearwood-Dan is one of the buzziest young painters working today. This summer, her emergence as a new market star culminated in a major solo show at Hauser & Wirth in London. On this episode of The Artsy Podcast, Yearwood-Dan joins Artsy’s Casey Lesser for a conversation about her remarkable trajectory, the challenges that young artists face today, and how her new exhibition models ways for galleries to be more welcoming.
Plus, Artsy editors Arun Kakar and Olivia Horn share their summer reading and viewing recommendations and discuss what they’ve learned about the art market so far this year.
About our guest:
Throughout paintings, works on paper, ceramics, and site-specific mural and sound installations, Michaela Yearwood-Dan (B. 1994, London) endeavors to build spaces of community, abundance, and joy. Yearwood-Dan’s unique visual language intertwines lines of text with botanical motifs and draws on a diverse range of influences, including Blackness, queerness, femininity, and healing rituals.
Exhibitions, books, and artists mentioned:
Michaela Yearwood-Dan, “No Time for Despair” at Hauser & Wirth
“Hope is a dangerous thing” at P.P.O.W
Ithell Colquhoun and Edward Burra at Tate Britain
Sheida Soleimani, “Panjereh” at International Center of Photography
“A Month in the Country” by J.L. Carr
“Yoko: A Biography” by David Sheff
Related reading:
The Artsy Vanguard 2022: Michaela Yearwood-Dan
Contemporary Artists Are Spellbound by the History of Sex Magic
7 Artists to Follow at Foundations 2025