Yewande 's profile
As a first-generation American Nigerian painter and former healthcare administrator, my work lives at the intersection of wellness, community care, and storytelling. Within my practice, I create from personal and collective memory, exploring what it means to rest, grieve, play, recover, and to belong to oneself and one’s community. By centering Black life, my work aims to uncover the richness in everyday experiences and the quiet spaces where life slows down just enough for the truth to emerge. Each work begins as a gesture of care and expands into a portrait of interiority, presence, and the fullness of being.
Working primarily in oil, I build narrative portraits in my signature ‘blurple’ skin tone to denote the divinity, dignity, and regality of deeply melanated skin. These tones are often contrasted with vibrantly colored clothing and adornment, allowing the figures to take up their rightful space. I think of my paintings as visual affirmations, capturing the beauty and humanity that persist amid everyday motion.
My practice is both a personal ritual and public offering, serving as an act of care, reclamation, and reconnection. Creating in this way allows me to bear witness to the resilience, tenderness, and self-possessed grace that continues to shape the communities that I love and exist within.
