Hana Ward
While We Wait
March 23, 2023–April 29, 2023The Breeder, Athens
The Breeder is pleased to present While We Wait, Hana Ward’s first solo exhibition in Athens.
Hana Ward (b. 1989, Los Angeles, CA) makes works that explore themes of identity, introspection, and transformation. Appearing both ethereal and visceral, Ward weaves together moods, motives and narratives to depict Black and Brown feminine figures who reflect and dream, creating their sovereign worlds from the inside out. Her meditative paintings juxtapose abstracted figures on colorful backgrounds, circling back to her inspirations in Matisse, Gauguin and Rousseau’s dreamy landscapes.
These multitudinous visions of unfolding self-actualizations are sometimes sheltered in the solitude of domestic space and other times liberated into landscapes. Influenced by anticolonial histories, spiritual texts, and cycles of the natural world, as well as the canon of art history, Ward’s work excavates the inner dimension to discover a world where one’s sovereignty is in the here and now.
She sets her female figures at the forefront, their pose and body language are invested with power and agency. Ward links her female protagonists to a larger collective of Black consciousness recognizing its power and divinity within it. In the artist’s own words ‘all of it is really about empowerment. I think it’s something that Black women are not particularly reminded of very much—of their own inner mental power. All my work ties to Black liberation.’
Ward received a BA from Brown University in 2011 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA. Ward’s work has recently been exhibited at venues including OCHI, Los Angeles, CA; Mrs. Gallery, Maspeth, Queens; Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA; Harun Gallery, Leimert Park, CA; Beyond Baroque, Venice, CA; Giant Robot, Oakland, CA. In 2017 Ward was awarded a Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs Artist-in-Residence Grant. Ward recently had a solo presentation at Frieze Los Angeles, under the auspices of OCHI and has an upcoming solo exhibition with OCHI in May 2023. Ward’s work has been featured in publications including Artforum, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Financial Times, Amadeus, Artillery Magazine, and AUTRE, and was featured in the Voices on Art Podcast in conjunction with Independent Art Fair.
