Description
UN Women UK is proud to present the fifth edition of The Art of Empowerment, with London-based artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Created by Maria Baibakova of Baibakov Art Projects, The Art of Empowerment is a fundraising and awareness programme which partners with leading women artists to create limited edition textile works on an annual basis in support of the mission of UN Women UK. This year, the programme presents a new edition by Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Proceeds from the sale of the edition will benefit the UN Women’s inaugural Emergency Fund supporting their emergency humanitarian work around the world.
‘You May Blame Aphrodite But I Can Only Blame You’ (2023) is Yearwood-Dan’s first foray into textile works. The artist, who is known for her lush, brightly-hued paintings and ceramics, draws on a diverse range of influences throughout her practice, 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. At once personal and political, Yearwood-Dan’s practice frequently reflects an inviting domesticity. Resisting any singular definition of identity, she explores the possibilities of creating spaces—physical, pastoral, metaphorical—that allow for unlimited and unbounded ways of being.
I’m honoured to partner with UN Women UK, an organisation that closely aligns with my own values. My own work explores the possibilities of creating spaces that allow for unlimited ways of being. Women need these spaces, where they are free and safe to be themselves, without fear of harassment or discrimination. There is hope. That future is possible. But we need to take bold action to make it happen. This responsibility falls on all of us,” said Michaela Yearwood-Dan, 2023 Art of Empowerment artist.
First launched in 2018, The Art of Empowerment initiative exists to close the gender gap through the power of art. The programme was founded by Maria Baibakova – art expert and Special Adviser on Arts & Philanthropy to UN Women UK – and creates the space for artists and art lovers to create widespread change for women and girls across the UK and around the world.