World over, more and more people are getting engaged with art. Art is becoming a more significant element of daily lives and experimentation with style, technique, material and form is seen across genres. More and more young artists are coming out bringing an element of freshness to the art that dominates our surroundings. Here are 20 upcoming international artists to look out for in 2017.
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Heidi Hahn
This Brooklyn-born artist is famous for bringing a refreshing and thoughtful perspective through her paintings. Often engaging with the female body as her subject, Heidi’s works of paraffin-infused layered images utilize a consistent cast of characters. The artist’s wondrous application of paint and attractive layered surfaces draw viewers into a psychological intense narrative easily. She has been a resident at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Headlands Center for the Arts and Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
Image courtesy: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/heidi-hahn-62158
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Math Bass
This Los Angeles-based artist is quite famous in New York for her first solo museum exhibition at MoMA PS. She created paintings made with an ambiguous language of shapes and symbols, alligators, cigarettes and zigzags which offered delightfully amusing, artistic and infinite readings. Bass has received a BA from Hampshire College in 2003 and an MFA from the University of California Los Angeles in 2011
Image courtesy: https://www.tanyabonakdargallery.com/artists/117-math-bass/
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Sara Cwynar
This contemporary artist specialises in photography, installation, book-making and collages. Sara was born in Vancouver, Canada in 1985 and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. With an MFA in photography from Yale University (2016), Sara likes to explore the nature of photographic images. She has a Bâloise Prize (2016), Printed Matter Emerging Artist Publication Series Grant (2013), The Camera Club of New York, Darkroom Residency, Runner-up Award (2012) and many other prestigious awards to her credit.
Image courtesy: https://coopercolegallery.com/artist/sara-cwynar/
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Gabriele De Santis
Born in 1983, this Italian artist likes to create contemporary arts and paintings pervaded by skate culture, which highlight the speed and mobility of contemporary life. His masterpieces highlight the digital culture and are instantaneous by nature. Gabriele received his MA from the University of the Arts, London, and his works typically balance form, colour and texture.
Image Courtesy: https://www.invaluable.com/auction-lot/gabriele-de-santis-b-1983-thats-hows-gon-be-young-137-c-fe542d49e7
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Aaron Fowler
This mixed media artist showcases his encounters with humans and his experiences in his work where he mostly uses discarded materials from his immediate environment community. He aims to communicate ideas about transformation and salvation through his work and does so creatively. Born 1988 in St. Louis, Fowler lives and works in New Haven and has received a number of awards including Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2014) and has earned the Skowhegan MN 2012 Yale School of Art Scholarship, The John Golasso Memorial Prize and Academy Scholarship Academy Merit Scholarship (2009 &2010).
Image Courtesy: https://www.mbart.com/exhibitions/189/works/artworks-15509-aaron-fowler-blue-2019/
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John Edmonds
Edmonds lives and works in Brooklyn, New York and is a well-known artist working in photography. He received BFA in Photography at the Corcoran School of Arts + Design and MFA in Photography from Yale University School of Art. His most recognized projects include ‘All Eyes On Me’ and ‘Hoods’, and John has held residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Light Work & FABRICA.
Image courtesy: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/exhibitions/john_edmonds
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Petrit Halilaj
Born in 1986 in Kostërrc, Petrit’s installations and sculptures explore ambidextrous drawing skills and excellent subject manifestation. He won the Ettore Fico Prize in Artissima 2013, represented his country at the 55th Venice Biennale (2013) and has been involved in numerous personal exhibitions. Halilaj’s subject manifestation is visually captivating which concerns the use of specific materials, such as branches, metal, earth, wood, animals, both alive and stuffed.
Image courtesy: https://mennour.com/artists/petrit-halilaj
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Rhys Coren
Rhys Coren born in 1983 at Plymouth, UK works across writing, animation, painted marquetry and performance; each media displaying an obvious pleasure and great display of form, colour, rhythm, texture, space and negative space. His stupendous wall works contain cartoon-like clouds often divided by grids of different colour and texture, the interplay of frenetic lines and drop shadows.
Image courtesy:https://cristearoberts.com/artists/42-rhys-coren/works/86024-rhys-coren-leslie-2020/
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Claire Tabouret
Claire Tabouret born in 1981 in Pertius, France, currently lives and works in Paris and Los Angeles. Her work deploys a universe filled with memories, histories and possible projections. While at first glance her subjects appear poised and elegant, upon closer inspection, they reveal the hidden darkness.
Image courtesy: http://curator.site/articles/2017/3/29/claire-tabouret-eclipse
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Alex Chaves
Alex Chaves – the Los Angeles-based painter and poet has amazed crowds with his solo exhibition at Night Gallery where he also launched his first book of poetry - Abigail Adams. Alex has participated in several museum and gallery exhibitions, including at the renowned Gavin Brown's enterprise and Grand Street.
Image courtesy: https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/aia-reviews/alex-chaves-61920/
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Zadie Xa
The 1983 born Korean-Canadian artist works on span electric pink varsity jackets, small figurative sculptures, spirited performances, and embroidered tapestries edged with fringe. Her work brings fantasy and personal narratives together, with significant hints of both Korean traditions and the ’90s culture. Currently, Xa is now focused on textile works and performances.
Image courtesy: https://blindspotgallery.com/artist/zadie-xa/
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Rachel Maclean
Glasgow-based Maclean’s surrealistic paintings and videos have been creating a massive impression in recent years. She also presented a solo presentation at the Zabludowicz Collection in 2014. Her work is unique because it comprises of fantasy characters which she as an artist uses to delve into society, identity and politics. This Edinburgh-born young artist will represent Scotland in the May, 2017 Venice Biennale.
Image courtesy: https://www.arsenalcontemporary.com/ny/exhib/detail/native-animals-rachel-maclean
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Cui Jie
Shanghai-born artist Cui Jie is a graduate from China Academy of Art Oil Painting Department and currently works and lives in Beijing. Her contemporary art pieces are beautifully layered with architectural sculptures and paintings. The Wall Street Journal has featured Cui as one of the youngest "China's Rising Art Stars”.
Image Courtesy: https://www.phaidon.com/agenda/art/articles/2016/november/23/cui-jie-why-i-paint/
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Celia Hempton
Celia Hempton’s artistic works radiate outward from the canvas to address sculptural objects and installations. Hempton’s solo show TIN at London’s Take Courage Gallery in 2012 included floor-based painted sheets of artificially bright colours that fade together in a digitalised caricature. Born in 1981 in Stroud, UK, she has a BA in Fine Art from the Glasgow School of Art and a MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art.
Image Courtesy: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/2020/10/08/power-dynamics-celia-hempton-interviewed/
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Willa Nasatir
The Los Angeles-born Willa Nasatir has created quite a wave in still-life photography of elaborately arranged objects against shadowy backgrounds. She uses advanced techniques such as re-photographing prints through a screen made of latex and Plexiglas. Will has had her solo shows in Los Angeles and New York and in 2017 her work will be presented at the Albright-Knox museum in Buffalo.
Image courtesy: https://chapter-ny.com/artists/willa-nasatir/
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Anna Hulacova
Czech Republic born Anna Hulacova’s sculptures are mostly inspired by mythological Gods, folkloric beasts, and religious icons. The figures embody rituals that contain history and geography together to express captivating stories of humanity’s leanness for worship and escape through art. The Prague-based artist was the Jindřich Chalupecký Award Finalist, 2016 and Artist of the Year, Czech Republic for 2017.
Image courtesy: https://pedrocera.com/artists/anna-hulacova
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Felix Kiessling
Felix Kiessling is well-known for his extensive research and fieldwork in environmental forces. His artworks experiment with the ideas of space, emptiness, weight and gravitation, and Kiessling executes his ideas with a minimalist aesthetic that stands the test of time. Whether it is an installation of rocks that are levitated in the air by a series of strings, or a sundial whose shadow always points to zero, his work is intriguing and beautifully reinforces the strength of nature. Felix describes his artistic works as the interface between our visualization that we individually fact and construct. Born in 1980 at Hamburg, Felix has worked at famous artist Olafur Eliasson’s institute for Raumpexperimente and is a part of Berlin-based artists’ collective Das Numen, comprised of Andreas Greiner, Julian Charriere, Felix Kiessling and Markus Hoffmann.
Image courtesy: https://felixkiessling.net/?p=1596
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Georg Oskar
Born 1985 in Akureyri, Iceland, Oskar lives and works in Iceland. Georg Óskar explores deep in the subconscious in order to expose hidden emotions through his art. His works highlights the simplicity of everyday life. His works are a part of collection in The Rochester Museum of Fine Arts, USA.
Image courtesy: https://museumofnonvisibleart.com/interviews/georg-oskar/ -
Blake Daniels
Blake Daniels approaches abstract painting with a remarkably fresh perspective. Born 1990 in Cincinnati, USA, Daniels lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa. The garish nature of Daniels works come across as the most overtly humanoid and narrative based, yet his paintings are concerned with what is happening on a much more complex scale.
Image courtesy: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2024/contemporary-curated/view-of-vaaldam
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Andrew Salgado
Andrew Saldago born 1982 in Canada, living and working in London, England, is considered as one of the most promising young figurative painters. The uneven brushstrokes and blotches of colour contribute to the boosting of psychological impact in Salgado's paintings. His richly layered equivocal portraits are as much an expression of the thoughts that lie behind his faces as they are representations of them.
Image courtesy: https://www.pibemagazine.com/art/andrew-salgado
