Michaela Yearwood-Dan

Now showing at The Whitworth, The Practice of Liberation, a new exhibition by acclaimed contemporary artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan. For her first UK institutional museum exhibition, the artist presents a major new commission that transforms the gallery into a layered installation shaped by painting, ceramics and sound.  

The exhibition, formed entirely of new work, centres on a series of 14 paintings and six ceramic vessels presented within a multidimensional installation designed by the artist and accompanied by a bespoke musical score by composer Alex Gruz.  

Drawing on the aesthetics and symbolism of the Catholic church, Yearwood-Dan creates a powerfully resonant space to examine the intersection of the histories of colonialism and institutional religion through the lens of her own memory and experience - reflecting on the ongoing process of personal and collective liberation.

The exhibition’s title references the writings of bell hooks, whose work explores how education, culture, love, and art can become tools for social and personal freedom. Visual and symbolic references to Catholicism appear both directly and indirectly, alongside the artist’s reflections on love, colonialism, patriarchal structures and class systems that have shaped her experience. Rather than presenting liberation as a fixed state, The Practice of Liberation explores it as ongoing — grounded in care, introspection and new ways of communing.