Visual art has a lasting cultural and societal impact on the world that shouldn't be forgotten, and while many turn to mediums like music and film for escapism, there's a wealth of talented young artists who work to keep the spirit of the visual arts alive.
With annual and biannual events like the Venice Biennale and Frieze New York, paintings, sculptures, photography, and all other forms of visual art will continue to hold value, yet it must be noted that the art shown at these exclusive events doesn't always include new and up-and-coming talents.
L'OFFICIEL is here to bridge that gap and introduce you to the art world's burgeoning artists. The comprehensive list below includes painters, sculptors, and photographers whose work undoubtedly has a lasting impact. Here's a comprehensive list of artists to watch in 2024.
Marika Thunder
Thunder's work mainly explores the human psyche and delves into themes surrounding spirituality, religion, and human connection. Renowned galleries that have included her work are the De Boer Gallery, with locations in Los Angeles and Antwerp, Belgium; the Nina Johnson Gallery, located in Miami; and Public Access, located on Henry Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.
Tariku Shiferaw
Tariku Shiferaw's geometric vision for his paintings and sculptures is sensational. Shiferaw says he "explores mark-making addressing the physical and metaphysical spaces of painting and social structures." The artist has participated in some of the Art world's most coveted programs including the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program and the Open Sessions initiative at the Drawing Center. He is currently an artist-in-residence at the World Trade Center through Silver Art Projects.
Nate Lewis
The Pittsburgh native says that he's interested in the "unseen." Lewis delivers a wealth of experiences to put into his art. He was a practicing critical care nurse and previously played the violin before he pursued visual art. Lewis says he's driven by empathy and nuance. His art has been featured in the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Artistic Museum of Contemporary Art, and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Anthony Akinbola
Anthony Akinbola makes an effort to commemorate his roots through his work. In 2022, the Nigerian-American artist presented an exhibition at the Sean Kelly Gallery titled Natural Beauty. The exhibition features panel artwork that primarily used durags, a cloth often used by Black men to protect their hair, as the main material. Through this exhibition and his work in general, Akinbola "unpacks the rituals and histories connecting Africa and America, addressing the power of fetishization around cultural objects" as per the gallery's website.
Chellis Baird
With a background in fashion, Baird incorporates textiles into her paintings and sculptures. She often uses ropes and fabrics to give her work texture as her goal is to manipulate the concept of a two-dimensional surface. Handwoven canvases and woven sculpture bases are signature to Baird.
"My textural language draws upon a lifetime of influences such as dance, fashion, textiles and color. These elements have become a constant source of inspiration for my handwoven canvases by catalyzing the emotional exploration of tangled compositions," she says.
Patrick Bayly
Bayly earned his BFA from West Virginia University and MFA from Columbia University. His work consists of photorealistic paintings that capture human emotion and his approach to art is "mathematical" according to this article from SPY. He explains that, to him, art can be seen as a mathematical function where a work's ability to be "visible" measures its impact in the world as art.
"If you make something and people don’t recognize it as an artwork, it decreases its “artness.” I’m saying that you take the degree of visibility multiplied by the “X factor,” and that equals “artness,” says Bayly.
His work has been exhibited around the world from Fireplace Place Projects gallery in East Hampton to Canepa Neri Gallery in Milan.
Omar Lawson
Omar Lawson is an incredible talent emerging in New York. He paints portraits of everyday people with an effort to highlight their rendering quirks; in other words, his aim is to paint individuals in a way that's free from the judgment of society.
Kevin Claiborne
Kevin Claiborne examines the world and his experiences through photography and aims to reach people through his work by visually discussing the Black experience and communicating the issues Black Americans deal with when it comes to identity, social environment, and mental health.
"Currently, my work focuses primarily on intergenerational trauma and memory, mental health within the Black experience, and psychological burdens related to or around identity development," the artist says on his website. "I am interested in using history to find new ways of looking at and understanding the present. Starting with the gaps in my own family history, and the space between ‘what I know vs. what I should know’, the missing information between where my ancestors come from and where I am today, I am digging and mining the sediment of histories, passed down, erased, and avoided."
