Contemplating 2012’s skyrocketing tuition fees, Newcastle-raised artist and designer Yamuna Forzani skipped out on art school in austerity Britain and instead embraced her local queer community in the Netherlands as a student at The Hague’s Royal Academy of Art. Now, this passion for LGBTQIA+ culture powers a multidisciplinary practice exploring identity, the body and femininity with a Pop Art-inspired visual punch, largely realized through her sprawling, textile wall hangings. Forzani is perhaps best known for her social design work, specifically her annual Utopia Ball x Fashion Show, which she co-organizes with fellow house member Seven Angels Garcon, which combines a catwalk show with LGBTQIA+ ballroom culture. While beginning at a grassroots level in 2018, it’s since gained institutional approval, winning Forzani a Dutch Design Award in 2022 and being hosted by Kunsthal Rotterdam two years in a row.
