Image via Complex Original
2013 was a fascinating year for the art world. We saw booming sales, a convergence of art and music that was unprecedented, and explosions from some of the already most-established artists in the game. With all of that, it became a little too easy to overlook the players who are on the front lines of artistic development, rather than commerce, provocative social commentary, or pure celebrity. But we kept the light on, and here are 10 emerging painters that have lit our attention up enough for us to be excited about their output in the coming year.
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Pap Souleye Fall
Age: 17
Lives: Kent, OH
This incredibly young painter was born in Dakar, Senegal, but moved over to the U.S. recently. His work is lyrical and fluid, already dealing with issues of identity and translation, and not just in his paintings. He works with sculpture and clothing design as well. But it’s the paintings he’s been creating since he was just 14—with oils no less—that strike our interest. He almost preternaturally (or perhaps without choice) fuses the ever-present background of digital movement with what he sees on the streets. He’s had a few gallery shows around Ohio, but his ambition is to come full-circle as a well-regard, internationally renowned artist.
Sanya Kantarovsky
Age: 31
Lives: Los Angeles
The Russian-born painter works in an oddly haunting minimalist style, as if interpreting the wireframe spirits of her subjects, and translating them to humorous, if not slightly unnerving paintings. Recalling the impact of comic strips, the impulse of tribal tableaux, and the imminent serenity of falling into a dark sleep, Kantarovsky’s work seems constantly on the verge of sublime insight.
Matthieu Clainchard
Age: 40
Lives: Paris
The Parisian artist Matthieu Clainchard has been working in and with the omnipresence of technological oppression and sublimation. He employs the color palettes and structures of video test screens into public and gallery installations. This is in addition to conceptual works, sculpture, and action art pieces. Clainchard is provocative for his insight into how images are not only easily replicable, but manipulative of our perceptions. As the technological process plows forward, it will be fascinating to see what he creates.
Faile
Ages: 37 and 38
Lives: Brooklyn
For all the success that the art-making duo centered in Brooklyn known as Faile accomplished in 2013—from doing some of the biggest murals in New York to having one of the most anticipated events at Art Basel Miami Beach 2013 to an installation at the New York City Ballet—there is nothing more exciting than what they might do with even more unlimited resources in 2014. Honestly, these guys have only gained more steam as they’ve gone on. Who knows exactly what they’ll accomplish in the coming year?
Maja Vukoje
Age: 44
Lives: Wien, Austria
Synthesizing the more interesting depictions of cultural politics currently out there, Vukoje’s large-scale paintings were one doyenne of Art Basel Miami Beach in 2013. Her use of multi-layered paint, with a process that involves many implements, including hair, many different types of paint, combs, spatulas, and so on, results in something mystery and unique. Her works are deep and resonant, demanding the viewer nearly fall into them as a mechanism of discovering the many layers.
Radka Salcmannova
Age: 27
Lives: Brooklyn
The Pilsen, Czech Republic-born artist Radka Salcmannova has been turning heads with her confounding and surreal works, such as her “Photography Paintings.” In these, she’s taking photos that look like paintings, bringing together her cultural memory with her outlook on art practice. To Salcmannova, everything is a performance, as each artwork is “a record of a moment,” as she says. Her works are dreamlike, sometimes appearing chemically burned or singed by the passage of memory. Her ambitions lie in expanding her practice for theater and performance, bridging all her past experiences in the visual arts into one sort-of uber artwork. It will be fascinating to see what she produces within the coming year.
Zhao Zhao
Age: 31
Lives: Beijing
As the Chinese government continues its repressive practices and government shutdown of cultural criticism there, it will be more and more important to keep an eye on lesser-known figures in the Chinese arts movement. As Zhao Zhao is a former assistant to Ai Weiwei, he’s faced many of the same hurdles the poster child of dissident Chinese art has, including having his work confiscated, slapped with massive, arbitrary fines, and being arrested and beaten for no apparent reason. But Zhao refuses to sit idly by. His work exists to modify the cultural memory while having to live consciously within it. A talented painter and sculptor, he’s multifaceted and fearless.
Fernando Corona
Age: Early 30s
Lives: Mexicali, Mexico
Corona took a familiar and then unfamiliar trip as a street artist: he started out as a tagger on the streets of Mexicali, before picking up his paintbrush. But, when he lost his studio in 2010, he went back to the streets to dedicate himself to public, large-scale murals. Rather than continue the self-interested goals of most graffiti, however, Corona now invites members of the community to work with him on his murals, whether or not they have formal training as artists. The artist also derives the subject matter of his murals from Tagged in the art world as a “neo-muralist,” Corona has said he considers himself a conceptual painter, whose work happens to occur outdoors. The mural above is a collaborative work from his time at the Mexicali Rose art collective in his hometown of Mexicali.
Rory W Price
Age: 24
Lives: Glasgow
The young Scottish painter called Rory William Price has both a feverish imagination and a sinister sense of humor. He embeds both these into his immense artistic output, both on canvas and in the digital realm. And, though we put him on a list of 25 young painters under 25 earlier this year, it appears he’s since been snapped up by the coveted Saatchi Gallery. Price is definitely an entertaining personality and visually inexhaustible painter. We’re looking forward to what’s next for him.
Dan Rees
Age: 31
Lives: Berlin
Rees has been on our radar for a while. But he hasn’t blipped off of there because he’s just still that fascinating. The Welshman’s works are so varied and clever, having shown most recently at the National Museum Wales it’s nearly impossible to break our attention away from how fresh each of his new series appears. Though his “Vacuum” and “Shaker Peg” paintings were what caught our eye back in 2011, it’s his recent engagement with bounded color pallets, as well as installation, that has continued to keep us riveted. Every move he makes is a step up from the last.