In Conversation With: Artist, Yvadney Davis
Beyond the Front Room: Artist Yvadney Davis
South London-based artist Yvadney Davis is making her mark as one of the most exciting Black British Caribbean voices in contemporary art. Known for her powerful figurative paintings and collages, Davis draws inspiration from the Windrush Generation, blending family memories, Caribbean folklore, and iconic design elements from the "West Indian front room." Her exhibitions, from Proverbs of the Windrush Child at the Black Cultural Archives to her upcoming The Land Holds Secrets in France, highlight her rising profile on both the UK and international stage.
Artist, Yvadney Davis.
Her paintings and collages weave together personal and collective histories, blending gestural brushwork, chrome ink, and lyrical text with vintage materials such as mid-century wallpaper, carpet protectors, and decorative trinkets. These tactile surfaces not only honour her ancestral lineage but also invite viewers to reflect on their own connections to home, displacement, and resilience.
Before establishing her fine art practice, Davis trained in fashion (BA Fashion Design, Central Saint Martins) and worked as a stylist — influences that can be seen in her precise use of the figure, colour, and pattern. She often flattens clothing into blocks of colour or collage, shifting attention to the sitter’s presence rather than their garments.
Artwork, Prophet of Peckham,Yvadney Davis.
Her body of work spans intimate pieces on bamboo coasters to large-scale wallpaper scrolls, consistently bridging past and present. Davis’s portraits incorporate loved ones, community members, folklore figures, and carnival traditions, situating Black British identity within a rich tapestry of generational storytelling and cultural pride.
Exhibitions, Commissions & Creative Highlights
Yvadney Davis has quickly built an impressive portfolio, with solo exhibitions including The Land Holds Secrets (Galerie Heimat, France, 2025), Black Roses in My Garden (Lemonseed Project, London, 2025), and Proverbs of the Windrush Child (Black Cultural Archives, 2023). Her work has also featured in major group shows such as Lore (Sunny Bank Mills, Leeds, 2024), Plurality Now (198 Gallery, 2023), and international showcases like The Space in Between (NG Creative Arts, France, 2025). Alongside exhibitions, Davis has delivered impactful commissions, notably Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 150 for Croydon Council (2025) and 100 Black Women Who Have Made a Mark for the Serendipity Institute, Leicester (2024).
Recognition and Media
Davis’s work has been featured in The Financial Times, The Voice Newspaper, and the Evening Standard. She was a semi-finalist on Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year (2023), winner of the NG Art Creative Residency x Galerie Heimat Art Prize (2025), and recipient of the Art United Painting Prize (2022).
Artwork left: Daylight Come. Right: An Afternoon Down East Street Market, Yvadney Davis.
An Artistic Stance of Joy, Resilience & Pride
From her South London studio, Davis anchors her practice in the joy, resilience, and pride of Black British Caribbean identity. Her art holds space for the interweaving of nostalgia and contemporary experience, lush Jamaican landscapes and English inner cities, inherited songs and present-day community, displacement and home. Each work is both a personal act of remembrance and a broader call to celebrate the richness of Caribbean diasporic life.
Artwork, She Wore the Islands, Yvadney Davis.
In Conversation With: Artist Yvadney Davis
What news do you have for us?
Right now, I’m diving into full-on studio mode, this year has been full! So, no press releases, just paint, beads and big ideas. 2026 is going to be exciting.
What has been a continual inspiration throughout your career?
Inspiration usually finds me through memory - a reggae song, a snippet of Caribbean poetry, a story from an elder or even a random rerun on TV. I recently discovered the poetry of Lorna Goodison and her words on her mother cracked me wide open. It’s those hidden sparks from culture and childhood that keep feeding my work.
Can you tell us about a life-changing travel/adventure experience?
Years ago, I stayed at Strawberry Hill in the Blue Mountains, Jamaica - it is pure bucket-list luxury with views over Kingston. But the real magic wasn’t the hotel; it was a day with my friend’s parents, who are coffee farmers. We wound up steep mountain roads, ate lunch straight from the garden, picked coffee beans and toured the Jablum coffee factory they supply (the best coffee in the world, no contest).
It was my first time in the Jamaican countryside, which is majestic in its abundance of fauna, and it left me deeply moved - beauty, sadness, ancestry, spirit. It reminded me how important it is when traveling to step beyond the hotel walls. Being welcomed by locals is a privilege and it’s there you get to see the fullness of the human experience.
What inspiring travel recommendations or experiences, can you share with our readers?
Get yourself to the Greek islands. For me they’re the closest thing to Caribbean Island living on this side of the Atlantic. My family feel at home there. For us, it's about exploration, relaxing, bonding and great food. Any Mitsis Hotel hits the sweet spot, my kids are entertained, incredible food and locations and my aesthetic boxes ticked. But what I’m really dreaming about is tapping into my paternal homeland and finally visiting Grenada, especially its tiny island of Carriacou. It’s minuscule but full of a unique culture, rooted in West Africa and I’d love to experience that first hand.
Where is your favourite restaurant?
The HARDEST question, wow! I’m eagerly waiting for the return of Chef Dom Taylor’s ‘The Front Room’, his Langham residency was pure magic. But for my regular fix, it must be RapChar, a tiny Jamaican spot in Brixton. The chef trained at the legendary Alpha school in Jamaica, and it shows: Caribbean food with creativity, finesse, passion and portions that don’t play. The cocktails are dangerously moreish and as a risotto lover I can confirm their Caribbean Prawn Risotto will have you undoing buttons just to finish every grain.
Chef Dom Taylor, Marvees Restaurant.
What's your go-to comfort food for snacking on in the studio?
I don't trust snacks near my work, but Red Bush tea. Always within reach.
What is your favourite cocktail bar or drink?
I’ve recently stopped drinking and finding a good non-alcoholic wine has been a challenge. But then at The Portrait (stunning views over the West End by the way, a hidden gem), I was introduced to the most beautiful sparkling wine, Dr Fischer Steinbock. It was such a perfect discovery, made even sweeter as I was there celebrating my inclusion in the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Prize, at the National Portrait Gallery downstairs.
What would you love to see more of in the art world?
I'm a rule-breaker and passionate about empowering people to have a voice, So I’d love to see more working-class voices in the art world. I want to see art that challenges assumptions, bends the rules and reveals truths that don’t usually make it into white walls and catalogues. Art should feel alive and connected to the world around us, not sealed off. More working-class voices mean more grit, humour, honesty and humanity in the mix and that can only make the art world richer.
What would you like to see less of in the art world?
Art made with dollar signs for pupils, it shows and it’s boring. I’m here for the process, the journey, not just the product. My biggest issue is AI. Hands off my hard work. Until there’s fair regulation and actual payback for the creatives being mined, it’s less ‘artificial intelligence’ and more ‘artificial exploitation’ and we need it to stop.