Image by David Mark from Pixabay
Can we, well into the 21st century, let go of the idea that art that is colourful can’t be serious contemporary art? And can we introduce the idea that emotions also live inside art? With the recent challenge of #5womenartists, can we take it a step further and name 5 contemporary womxn artists?
Ayako Rokkaku https://ayakorokkaku.com/
Read more about the use of the word Womxn on my About page.
Nature and the spiritual, the femxle gaze, pop culture inspiration, mesmerizing immersive installations, these are some words that come to mind with the follwing artists. Now that Instagram is hiding posts from artists and has the most obnoxious of advertisements, how to find new artists? Here are a few.
Sarah Cain
Images from http://www.sarahcainstudio.com/
Based in LA, Sarah Cain expands the art of painting beyond the canvas, but also on canvas. While her style remains consistent, she makes bold new moves in different works.
Hein Koh
Images from http://www.heinkoh.com/
Brooklyn-based artist Hein Koh makes poppy art that has at once a sense of vulnerability and sense of sterility, and a sense of humor.
Alex Nuñez
Images from www.alexnunez.net
Alex Nuñez is based in Miami and includes all sorts of materials in her dynamic and explosive paintings, whatever she happens to come across in her studio. Her work also often starts from a picture from popular media.
Phaan Howng
Image from https://www.phaan.com/
Phaan Howng combines interesting and overwhelming colorful aesthetics with a strong backstory in installation art. What does it mean to be hysterical?
Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir aka Shoplifter
Shoplifter / Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir
Representing Iceland in the prestigious 2019 Venice Biennale exhibition with Chromo Sapiens, Shoplifter created an immersive and very colorful plush installation with sound. In her work Ghostbeast (in the video above) at the Day for Night visual and music festival in Houston she worked with projection and light, which look amazing to be at.
Andrea Mary Marshall
Having femxle perspectives in art also means having femxle approaches in art to sexuality and the femxle body. Andrea Mary Marshall often takes selfies for her art and asks what is sexual freedom and when is it an image forced upon women they should comply with. Painting over pop-culture with her ‘Vague’ covers, with images of womxn from art history and more, the work Toxic Women comments with flair and humor on what is expected of womxn.
Jennifer Sullivan
https://www.jennifersullivan.org/
Embracing a naïve painting style, Jennifer Sullivan boldly has entered the art world, often portraying femxle figures.
Sara Cwynar
Color, pop-culture, and the over abundance of images and stuff we are faced with today come together in the thoughtful work of multi-media artist Sara Cwynar.
Melanie Bonajo
Melanie Bonajo will be representing the Netherlands at the next Venice Biënnale. Psychedelic, spiritual, curious, performative, colorful: these words only begin to describe her art so go see it. Find more information on YouTube or this gallery website: https://akinci.nl/artists/melanie-bonajo/
Mickalene Thomas
‘Mickalene Thomas (lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) makes paintings, collages, photography, video, and installations that draw on art history and popular culture to create a contemporary vision of female sexuality, beauty, and power. Blurring the distinction between object and subject, concrete and abstract, real and imaginary, Thomas constructs complex portraits, landscapes, and interiors in order to examine how identity, gender, and sense-of-self are informed by the ways women (and “feminine” spaces) are represented in art and popular culture.’
Text from:
https://www.mickalenethomas.com
Baseera Khan
https://www.baseerakhanstudios.com/
Baseera Khan is based in New York. Her work on the left is an art installation with a rock-climbing wall made from 99 unique poured dyed resin casts of the corners of the artist’s body.
On the right, an art installation featuring a custom lounge unit with eight unique seating panels made from pleather, artist’s underwear, and mass produced prayer rugs lined with LED lighting. Let’s hope Baseera Khan will have shows in Europe.
In Conclusion
These are just a few 21st century femxle artists working professionally, who suit my personal taste in art. Go on your own quest and let me know your favorite womxn artists.
More femxle art contemporaries: Field Kallop, Nina Chanel, Judy Pfaff, Yasmine Diaz art.
Read about Remarkable Womxn Who Made Modern Art History here
Curious about my art? Surf to www.reinilde.com