Some Artists I Like
Here's a curation of some of the artists I've recently learned about and liked. In no particular order.
1. Kate Zimmerman Turpin
Kate Zimmerman Turpin is an artist based in Texas Hill Country (Central/South Texas). She's inspired by the landscape and nature around her and utilizes soft pastel colors. Recently, she's become more known on social media and has grown a large following in the art community.
Favorite Work: Pasture
60 x 72 inches, acrylic and pastels on unprimed canvas.
I love anything that has soft, muted green colors, and this is one of my favorite works. I'm also a big fan of how she frames and sets her art in spaces.
2. Gizem Akdag
This next artist is quite controversial in the art community as an AI artist. She posts carousels of her work separated by themes, color, and style, using Midjourney to develop them.
This is one of my favorite works from her: I love the combination of pink and green, and I love golf.
I will say that as someone who loves physical art and understands the complications of AI art and the rhetoric around it, I still believe that what Gizem is creating is real art. It takes vision and an eye to create work like hers, and it's unfair to compare it to AI slop. She's mastered the skill of AI art generation. These works feel surreal and have a sense of stillness. You can browse more of her work on Instagram.
3. Stephen Doherty
Stephen Doherty is a Manchester-based artist and illustrator who specializes in florals.
Favorite Work: Flora (2023)
I also particularly love his solo exhibition called Gratitude Blooms, which was showcased in 2019. He created these pieces during an artist residency in Goa, India.
"My focus is on the flower as a celebration of nature; the power behind its softness, and the pulsing rhythm of the bloom. During Goa's monsoon season, I was an artist in residence with Aamir Art House. There was a sense of cleansing and renewal as flowers came into bloom. Trees grew upwards and weaved throughout buildings. Nature was embraced rather than cut back."
COS Summer 2023 Collection — 14 limited pieces dropped.
4. Sanyu
Sanyu (Chang Yu) is a Chinese-French artist born in 1901 in Sichuan. He's famous for his nude, still life, and animal paintings.
Favorite Work: Two Horses (1930s)
5. Danny Gretscher
Danny Gretscher is a Berlin-based artist who works with spray paint, acrylic, pencil, and mixed materials. His paintings are full of fragmented figures, geometric shapes, heavy texture, and bits of text — loose figurative forms that dissolve into abstract shapes.
Favorite Work: Forgotten Planet Awakens
Large-scale mixed-media painting at Great White Melrose, 8917 Melrose Ave, West Hollywood.
I saw this piece at one of my favorite restaurants in LA, Great White on Melrose, and it has always caught my eye. I took this photo of it recently. I love the colorful collage and all the different textures and shapes layered together. Gretscher also includes horses throughout a lot of his work, which I've been especially drawn to recently. I've found myself gravitating toward that motif this year because it feels especially timely with the Year of the Horse.
