Yaw Tony

“I break all colours rules to define all colours rules. I strongly believe all colours complement each other; one just has to know what they are doing. Take a look at nature, it consists of the many colours at a given time and they work beautifully.” _signed Yaw Tony

Yaw Tony is a designer/artist based in Toronto. Trained in Architecture, Graphic Design and Fine Art, and work in those areas as well as products designs and creative consulting. Work has been exhibited in Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Atlanta, Austin, Toronto and has been published widely; .Cent Magazine 2016, Making Africa; A Continent of Contemporary Design 2015, and cover feature of Designlines 2018 and Studio, Craft and Design in Canada, 2021. Awards: Black Designers of Canada Award of Excellence, 2021, WA (Wearable Art) DesignTO Award, 2021, ESSE QUAM VIDERE (To Be Rather Than To Appear), DesignTO, 2019, +

Colour and its connection to humanity is an intimate thing. Yaw Tony’s artistic practice is rooted both in the idea of human value as well as how that idea is refined and reexpressed through colour. Like proverbs and parables, he plays with the obfuscation of truths, weaving duality into his work. Preeminent in his work is the place of storytelling. In his work he aims to not simply capture beauty and freeze it within a frame, but rather to paint ideas and questions like Who am I? Identity. Where am I from? Source. Why am I here? Purpose. What can I do? Potential. Where am I going? Destiny. These questions are the source of human motivations and actions. The quest of meaning, love, pursuit and aim for better technology, future, leadership, corruption, crime, joy, care—all arrive from different answers and explorations of these questions, whether for better or worse. How truthfully each of us answers these questions is a reflection on how close we are to our deepest selves, rather than to the selves society makes up for us. These are the explorations Yaw’s work aims to lead us through. Yaw strongly believes that every human possesses a leadership spirit to be and exercise in their area of gifting but many will die not becoming. Yaw Tony’s art and design works are to stimulate and converse about the spirit of leadership to one’s inner being.

 Yaw Tony believes irrefutably, there is nothing more powerful on the earth than an idea, why because ideas are the source of everything, ideas also control the world, ideas are the source of motivation and purpose. Without ideas, we don’t have a purpose in existence, there is no quiddity. 

Purpose determines the design and design determines needs. Without purpose, we don’t have definitions, without definition we don’t have meaning, without meaning we don’t have understanding, without understanding we don’t have communication, without communication we don’t relationships, without relationships we don’t have oneness, without oneness there is no fulfillment and without fulfillment, there is no sense of happiness and significance (personal or corporate), destination, fulfillment of needs. The paramount essence of my work and the general approach of my work is to depict ideas that stimulate communication, a place of storytelling, a place that reminds us about love which is a human basic need, self-love, self-discovery, self-sourced, self-worth, self-esteem, self-concept, self-identity, self-value and self-awareness, this understanding produces the wholeness of a person.

Part of a larger body of work the scarves form the first stage of the Life Liveth collection, whose maximalist aesthetic carries across mediums from furniture to wallpapers, to other decorative items, textiles, prints, and so forth that we include in our quest to beautify everyday life.

SELECTED WORKS