Kim Foster Yardley

As a black woman in Cape Town, South Africa, I grew up steeped in segregation, only realising the extent to which this experience had constructed my sense of myself and reality, when I immigrated to Canada. Working at the intersection of art and psychology allows me to create expressive portraits that reflect personal encounters with socio-political issues such as identity, inequity and mental health.

I explore how materialities and methods can simultaneously visualise human trauma and resilience. My art practice is strongly influenced by the use of value and expressive style of Jennifer Packer, the intimacy and looseness of South African artist Marlene Dumas, and the reductive style of Michael Armitage in depicting African diasporic experience.

Balancing each painting to evoke fragility and strength, I use layering and the power of colour to express autobiographical states of melancholy and vulnerability amidst my new surroundings while inviting the viewer to dialogue with the ambiguity and commonalities of personhood.