Reflections

My painting has to do with the modern woman and her lost sense of self; her fragmentation from feminine concepts. She is a part of nature, but when looking to the world outside of herself what is reflected back is a convoluted version of femininity. She as a being is complete, beautiful, strong, wild, nurturing, compassionate, and whole - it's just a matter of her beginning to see herself for herself - not through the lense of our society - but to feel her own body and love her own skin.

Hannah Yata was born in 1989 and raised in a small town in Georgia. She is half Japanese and Caucasian. She grew up with a deep love of nature and animals passed down by the beautiful surroundings in the country and her mother. As a young adult, she studied feminism, psychology, and art in college. Graduating with a BFA in painting from the University of Georgia in 2012 she moved up to New York to focus on her work and how to put her ideas into paintings. In 2015, she was commissioned to do several works of art for musician B.o.B, which are now featured on his latest album: “Psycadelik Thoughtz.”

 In her own work, Yata seeks to interweave political ideas, (using nature, women, and feminism almost synonymously), environmental degradation, and themes of moral injustice into increasingly chaotic paintings. She uses masks from a mix of other cultures to speak to the different relationships that native tribes and cultures have with the earth, while giving anthropomorphic qualities and symbolism to the animals to speak their consciousness. The increasing psychedelic features to her work are inspired by beauty and the energy of nature, while communicating the anxiety and tension she feels brewing in the world. These elements are combined many times to celebrate the female form that denies objectification and exploitation of nature and interweaves them into grotesquely beautiful, surreal dreamscapes.