Discover "The Golden Half" with Nyala Yvonne
‘The Golden Half’ is an art exhibition by Nyala Yvonne that weaves together the threads of coming-of-age storytelling with experimental afro-surrealist collage art. This immersive experience redefines some traditional biblical motifs, while also shedding new light on ideas of identity, empowerment, and the pursuit of authenticity.
Each artwork serves as a poignant chapter in this captivating narrative, celebrating the transition from adolescence into adulthood—the golden half of life, as Nyala sees it.
This exhibit challenges ideas of strength and fearlessness, championing the underdog and inspiring confidence in the face of adversity. Highlighting the courage it takes to embrace change.
In her mixed media collage works, Nyala intricately weaves together disparate elements—vintage photographs, textile fragments, assorted ephemera, and digital tools—to construct layered narratives that blur the boundaries between past and present. Each composition serves as a visual tapestry, inviting viewers to unravel its intricate threads and uncover hidden meanings.
Nyala Yvonne (b.1997) is a Black American artist originally from Tallahassee, Florida, and now based in Atlanta, Georgia. Nyala has a BA in Studio Art from Florida State University. With a foundation in creative writing, mixed media collage, and video art. Her creative journey is a synthesis of traditional and contemporary techniques. Through the tactile manipulation of found materials and the dynamic interplay of images, she explores themes of memory, identity, and societal constructs through an afro-surrealist lens.
Nyala’s work has been exhibited in several spaces around Atlanta such as Cat Eye Creative, Echo Contemporary, Callanwolde Fine Arts Center, Dalton Gallery, The Bakery, and Hapeville Depot Museum. Nyala has attended residencies at The Hambidge Center for Creative Arts, as well as Underground Atlanta. Nyala was awarded MINT Gallery’s 2023 Leap Year Fellowship. Moreover, she has been awarded funding from The Idea Capitol Visual Artist Grant (2024)
Emily Llamazales is an interdisciplinary artist whose work draws from science-fiction and reimagined biology in order to address concerns about our ecological future. She holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Studio Art and Design from the University of Georgia’s Lamar Dodd School of Art (2019), was selected as a finalist for the 2023 Emerging Artist Fellowship by Atlanta Celebrates Photography, awarded a 2022/2023 Emerging Artist Award from the Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs and is a recipient of a 2022 Idea Capital Grant.
Llamazales previously served as the Program and Development Coordinator at Burnaway, a non-profit magazine of contemporary art criticism from the South. Recent exhibitions include a two person presentation at NADA Miami alongside Sam Newton with Cleo the Gallery (2023), Gloom-Bloom, a duo show with Sydney Ewerth at Day & Night Projects (2023), LOOK! at Arts Southeast in Savannah (2023), and the Working Artist Project Studio Apprentice Group Show, at MOCA GA (2022).
More about Mörk Materia
By way of an indulgence in sci-fi media and a studied fascination of the ocean’s own alien-like organisms, speculations on future ecology are formed here as objects and portals that portray creatures and landscapes both real and imagined through sculptural ceramics, metal and detritus. Alluding to the vastness of space and the depths of the ocean where the sun loses its reach, Mörk Materia, meaning dark matter, also borrows its name from a sci-fi epic poem by Swedish writer and critic Aase Berg. The poem unfolds as a post-cataclysmic parable in which the narrator witnesses the slow drip of mutation and evolution towards a new order of biology, post radiation and climate disaster.
