Michaela Yearwood-Dan speaks to Maria Balshaw to celebrate the launch of her new publication at The Groucho Club in London

Join us to hear artist Michaela Yearwood-Dan in conversation with curator and academic Maria Balshaw to celebrate the launch of the publication ‘Michaela Yearwood-Dan: The Practice of Liberation’ (2026) at The Groucho Club in London.

Part of ArtReview and Ursula magazine’s ‘Off the Record’ series, these intimate and relaxed conversations bring together artists, thinkers and creatives to give an insight into their inspirations, processes and evolution of ideas.⁠ The series is a celebration of traditional conviviality, designed to be experienced live in a welcoming wine bar setting.

6.30 pm: Arrival and welcome drink

7 pm: Talk followed by a book signing

Copies of ‘Michaela Yearwood-Dan: The Practice of Liberation’ will be available to purchase at the event. This illustrated publication accompanies the artist’s first solo institutional exhibition, ‘Michaela Yearwood-Dan: The Practice of Liberation,’ on view at The Whitworth in Manchester through Sunday 18 October 2026. Bringing together painting, ceramics and sound together into a multidimensional installation, Yearwood-Dan creates a powerfully resonant space dedicated to the ongoing practice of self-transformation and movement towards liberation.

Tickets cost £14 per person, which includes a glass of wine, as well as a copy of ArtReview and Ursula magazines. Please note seats will be allocated on a first come, first serve basis. Drinks will be available to purchase throughout the evening.

About Michaela Yearwood-Dan

Throughout paintings, works on paper, ceramics, and site-specific mural and sound installations, Michaela Yearwood-Dan endeavors to build spaces of community, abundance, and joy. The artist’s unique visual language draws on a diverse range of influences, including Blackness, queerness, femininity and healing rituals. Moving freely between media and resisting any singular definition of identity, Yearwood-Dan explores the possibilities of creating spaces—physical, pastoral, metaphorical—that allow for unlimited and unbounded ways of being.

About Dr Maria Balshaw CBE

Dr Maria Balshaw CBE is an art director, curator and academic. From 2017 – 2026, she was the Director at the Tate in London, UK. Before the Tate, she was Director of Culture for Manchester City Council, Director of The Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, UK, and Director of Manchester City Galleries. Balshaw has worked with National Museum Directors Council, Art Fund, Creative Folkestone and Factory International, amongst other arts organizations. In June 2015, Balshaw was appointed a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE), in Queen Elizabeth II’s birthday honors list, for Services to the Arts.

Earlier in her career, Balshaw was a Lecturer in Cultural Studies at University College Northampton and in 1997, she joined the University of Birmingham as a Research Fellow and Lecturer in Visual Culture. She left academia in 2022 to become director of the Creative Partnerships in Birmingham. In 2022, alongside her role at Tate, Balshaw was appointed Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge, delivering a series of public lectures at Murray Edwards College, where she became a Life Fellow. In September 2027, Balshaw will be appointed Master of University College, Oxford.

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Images: Michaela Yearwood-Dan. Photo: Ash Tomkins; Maria Balshaw. Photo: Erdem Moralioglu

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