We don’t believe in waiting for permission to call someone great. These five artists are shaping the visual language of right now—telling urgent stories, pushing against systems, and creating work that sticks with you long after you’ve left the gallery (or closed the tab).
Whether you’re building a collection or simply curious about where contemporary art is headed, here are five names to know, follow, and support.
1. Qualeasha Wood
Medium: Textile, digital embroidery
Qualeasha blends digital culture and Black womanhood into sacred iconography—think tapestries that reference internet aesthetics, memes, and surveillance culture with the gravity of stained glass. Her work feels like the internet made tangible and holy.
Find her @qualeasha
2. Cristine Brache
Medium: Sculpture, video, text
Brache’s work is emotional, quiet, and devastating. She explores inherited trauma, medical systems, femininity, and cultural erasure—often through haunting, minimal objects. Her practice feels like a whisper that cuts deep.
Find her @cristinebrache
3. Kiyan Williams
Medium: Performance, sculpture, installation
Using soil and Black queer imagination, Williams constructs decolonial monuments—literally tearing down dominant narratives and building new ones from the ground up. Their work is poetic, political, and radically rooted.
Find them @kiyanwilliams
4. Farah Al Qasimi
Medium: Photography
Farah captures color, pattern, and absurdity in scenes of everyday life, particularly within the Gulf states and diaspora. Her photos are lush, layered, and loaded with commentary on gender, beauty, and consumerism.
Find her @farahalqasimi
Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola
Medium: Mixed media, durags, consumer objects
Akinbola transforms culturally loaded materials—especially durags—into abstract paintings and installations that pulse with meaning. His work explores Black identity, commodification, and spiritual transformation.
Find him @anthonyakinbola
This Is Just the Beginning.
5 Emerging Artists You Should Know is the first drop in our new
Emerging Now series, where we spotlight the voices, visions, and shifts shaping contemporary art today.
You don’t need a massive budget to be a collector. Share their work. Attend their shows. Buy a print. Tell a friend. Every bit of visibility matters.
Who’s on your radar? Drop your favorite emerging artists in the comments. We are always looking to discover more. Submit a feature here.
