BY ARUN KAKAR
Earlier this month, Artsy launched the eighth edition of The Artsy Vanguard, which features 10 of the most promising artists working today.
Since its debut in 2018, The Artsy Vanguard has shined a light on prodigious creative talent, and many of its alumni have gone on to become leaders in contemporary art and culture. Indeed, 2025 has been a big year for several artists featured in past editions.
Here, we highlight the trajectories of three Vanguard alumni who had major moments in 2025, tracing how their careers have gained momentum since they were featured.
Portrait of Michaela Yearwood-Dan by Ollie Adegboye.
Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
Another alumna of The Artsy Vanguard 2022, British painter Michaela Yearwood-Dan was spotlighted for her “unabashedly lush and tactile works—manifestations of the themes of love, vulnerability, and femmeness that inspired them,” as Allysia Alleyne wrote in her profile of the artist.
Over the past three years, Yearwood-Dan’s calligraphic abstractions filled with floral motifs and diaristic text have become wildly popular. Her instantly recognizable style, blue-chip representation, and strong market momentum position her among the most prominent abstract painters of her generation.
Yearwood-Dan’s works have been consistently coveted at auction. A month before she was featured in The Artsy Vanguard, her painting Coping Mechanisms (2021) sold at Phillips London for £239,400 ($270,600), nearly 12 times more than its lower estimate and a record for the artist. Just six months later, that total was exceeded when Love me nots (2021) sold for a staggering £730,800 ($881,519) at Christie’s London.
In September 2024, Yearwood-Dan joined the roster of Hauser & Wirth, which represents her in collaboration with Marianne Boesky Gallery. She completed a residency at Hauser & Wirth’s Somerset, England, studio that fall, and in May 2025, she mounted her first solo exhibition with the mega-gallery, “No Time For Despair,” in London. That show was a huge milestone for the artist, the latest highlight in her rapid and ongoing rise. “I feel very fortunate that the equation of hard work and success has worked in my favor,” she told The Artsy Podcast in July.
Another major moment is forthcoming for Yearwood-Dan. In April 2026, she will open her first institutional solo exhibition at The Whitworth in Manchester, England, featuring a new commission.
