Exhibition view of Hilma af Klint's The Ten Largest at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, 2018. License
Instagram has proven to be the dominant social media platform for artists to share their work online. However, with millions of artists posting, it can be a challenge to discover ones with truly compelling pieces. In this slideshow, we wanted to highlight seven exceptional emerging women artists who are worth following.
As one can see from her Instagram page, German-born visual artist Stefanie Heinze’s bright, whimsical paintings often comprise a blending of distorted objects— like dismembered body parts.
Heinze's art opens up a world of imaginative, yet unsettling, figures dancing on the line between abstraction and figuration. Although working primarily with paint, she uses pencil and ink sketches to create the foundation of her canvas.
Heinze has exhibited worldwide and currently has works in collections like: the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Musée d‘Art Moderne de Paris, among others.
Drawn to symbolism and Art Nouveau with a modern-day touch, Emily Mae Smith’s art speaks to themes of gender, class, and violence from a feminist perspective.
The painter has presented both solo and group exhibitions in variety of major galleries, including: Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin; Petzel Gallery, New York; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, to name a few. Smith is also featured in collections spanning the globe.
Molly Brocklehurst is a figurative painter who earned her MFA in Fine Art from the Wimbledon College of Arts, University of Arts London in 2019. She has since exhibited throughout the UK and Scandinavia and is even a part of the Wing's private collection in London.
Her pieces address themes of time, loss, and nostalgia as she works in hyper-pigmented, contrasting colors, as is displayed on her Instagram account.
Portraitist and still life painter Estelle Day makes her art from her home studio in South West London, after graduating in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes University. Working almost exclusively with oil paint, Day strives to make her pieces realistic, while also capturing the personality and character of her subjects.
Day collects objects— from shells to tea kettles— and uses them as inspiration for her still life paintings. Her Instagram captures the likeness between art and subject, making viewers think twice about which they are actually looking at.
Having quite the track record of exhibitions, one of Day’s portraits was on display at the National Portrait Gallery London in 2017. She also shows her work with the Society of Women Artists at the Mall Galleries in London each year.
Recent Yale School of Art MFA graduate Tura Oliveira’s art expresses her interest in the intersection of craft, science fiction, and quilting. The quilt featured in this Instagram post, Stranded on this Planet like a Bitter Almond or an Olive Pit, She Finds Herself Miraculously Changed (2023), was inspired by both sci-fi film director David Cronenber and Italian painter Titian.
Not only does Oliveira work with fabrics and multi-media art forms, but she also engages in performance art as well.
New Mexico-based artist Maja Ruznic’s paintings are thoughtfully enveloped in deep meaning. She often explores themes of childhood trauma, war, and feelings associated with the refugee experience through her out-of-focus figures and “runny” art style.
After graduating from the California College of the Arts, Ruznic has been working mainly with water-based paint mediums, though she has since expanded to oils as well.
A writer and visual artist, Carmen Winant uses collage and mixed media to explore the societal perception and representation of women through her artwork.
One of her more recent installations, The Last Safe Abortion, is a large-scale photo collage centered around abortion care workers, bringing light to the emotional and physical struggles resulting from the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. Winant’s work highlights the necessary mundanity of abortion care, using her collage to advocate for reproductive justice work.
This installation is currently on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2024 Biennial.
Abby Andrulitis
Abby Andrulitis is a New England-based writer and the Assistant Editor for Art & Object. She holds her MFA in Screenwriting from Boston University.
