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artists to watch
April 22, 2016

11 Artists Poised to Have a Breakout Year

By the Cut

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Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine

For our Art and Design issue, New York has been examining the art world’s recent past — tracing the identity-politics revolution; catching up with Richard Prince, the Warhol of the Instagram age — and it’s present, as we sit down with James Franco to let him make a case for his art and get a crash course in today’s market from a Sotheby’s advisor. And now we look to the future: ahead, 11 artists, selected by senior art critic Jerry Saltz, who are poised to have breakout years, along with a sampling of their work.

Text by Jerry Saltz. Photographs by Bobby Doherty. Styling by Rebecca Ramsey.

*A version of this article appears in the April 18, 2016 issue of New York Magazine.

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1 / 22 Photos
A beloved downtown favorite, Cianciolo makes bewitching rabbit-hole installations involving small blankets that display her homemade boxes that open to reveal endless worlds of ephemera, personal notes, ancillary drawings, and personal items. A beloved downtown favorite, Cianciolo makes bewitching rabbit-hole installations involving small blankets that display her homemade boxes that open to reveal endless worlds of ephemera, personal notes, ancillary drawings, and personal items.

A beloved downtown favorite, Cianciolo makes bewitching rabbit-hole installations involving small blankets that display her homemade boxes that open t...

A beloved downtown favorite, Cianciolo makes bewitching rabbit-hole installations involving small blankets that display her homemade boxes that open to reveal endless worlds of ephemera, personal notes, ancillary drawings, and personal items.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Susan Cianciolo: Greater New York Susan Cianciolo: Greater New York

Susan Cianciolo: Greater New York

Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Yiadom-Boakye is a great portraitist of the flesh whose every flickering thick mark and opulent stroke asserts the traditional language of figure painting (going back to Sargent and Manet) and reminds us that the very word flesh is charged with many meanings. Sexy, clay-y wet-on-wet surfaces. Yiadom-Boakye is a great portraitist of the flesh whose every flickering thick mark and opulent stroke asserts the traditional language of figure painting (going back to Sargent and Manet) and reminds us that the very word flesh is charged with many meanings. Sexy, clay-y wet-on-wet surfaces.

Yiadom-Boakye is a great portraitist of the flesh whose every flickering thick mark and opulent stroke asserts the traditional language of figure pain...

Yiadom-Boakye is a great portraitist of the flesh whose every flickering thick mark and opulent stroke asserts the traditional language of figure painting (going back to Sargent and Manet) and reminds us that the very word flesh is charged with many meanings. Sexy, clay-y wet-on-wet surfaces.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
1 pm, Mason's Yard, 2014 1 pm, Mason's Yard, 2014

1 pm, Mason's Yard, 2014

Photo: Courtesy of the artist; Jack Shainman Gallery; New York; and Corvi-Mora; London
An artist of uncanny materiality, Cameron-Weir makes silver seashells that double as incense burners and oil lamps that are sometimes attached to ceilings or long snaking white walls and that venture into archaic realms of archaeology, psychological trance, and sculptural divination. An artist of uncanny materiality, Cameron-Weir makes silver seashells that double as incense burners and oil lamps that are sometimes attached to ceilings or long snaking white walls and that venture into archaic realms of archaeology, psychological trance, and sculptural divination.

An artist of uncanny materiality, Cameron-Weir makes silver seashells that double as incense burners and oil lamps that are sometimes attached to ceil...

An artist of uncanny materiality, Cameron-Weir makes silver seashells that double as incense burners and oil lamps that are sometimes attached to ceilings or long snaking white walls and that venture into archaic realms of archaeology, psychological trance, and sculptural divination.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
venus anadyomene venus anadyomene

venus anadyomene

Photo: Jason Mandella
Upson’s Edgar Allan Poe surrealism tells tales of lovers, strangers, and dangers using contorted casts of discarded objects like couches and mattresses as well as detailed replicas of genitalia and bacchanal videos of haunted huts. Upson’s Edgar Allan Poe surrealism tells tales of lovers, strangers, and dangers using contorted casts of discarded objects like couches and mattresses as well as detailed replicas of genitalia and bacchanal videos of haunted huts.

Upson’s Edgar Allan Poe surrealism tells tales of lovers, strangers, and dangers using contorted casts of discarded objects like couches and mattresse...

Upson’s Edgar Allan Poe surrealism tells tales of lovers, strangers, and dangers using contorted casts of discarded objects like couches and mattresses as well as detailed replicas of genitalia and bacchanal videos of haunted huts.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Door Stop, 2014 Door Stop, 2014

Door Stop, 2014

Photo: Jason Mandella/Courtesy of Ramiken Crucible
Pierce’s American Reflexxx — made with Alli Coates, her former girlfriend — gives us the androgynous sexy artist in a mini-dress and a silver mask strolling a South Carolina boardwalk. She attracts an enormous crowd just by her strange unleashed female sexuality. Horror strikes, as out of the crowd a middle-age white woman runs full speed at Pierce from behind and shoves her to the ground. Pierce’s American Reflexxx — made with Alli Coates, her former girlfriend — gives us the androgynous sexy artist in a mini-dress and a silver mask strolling a South Carolina boardwalk. She attracts an enormous crowd just by her strange unleashed female sexuality. Horror strikes, as out of the crowd a middle-age white woman runs full speed at Pierce from behind and shoves her to the ground.

Pierce’s American Reflexxx — made with Alli Coates, her former girlfriend — gives us the androgynous sexy artist in a mini-dress and a silver mask str...

Pierce’s American Reflexxx — made with Alli Coates, her former girlfriend — gives us the androgynous sexy artist in a mini-dress and a silver mask strolling a South Carolina boardwalk. She attracts an enormous crowd just by her strange unleashed female sexuality. Horror strikes, as out of the crowd a middle-age white woman runs full speed at Pierce from behind and shoves her to the ground.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Fowler has a way with ungainly scale — things the size of a Subaru — and he has a far-out feel for unwieldy materials like glass, wood, and rope. Everything is woven into objects that are as much paintings and sculptures as they are flags, shields, barriers, and parapets. A wild Rauschenbergian spirit beats here. Fowler has a way with ungainly scale — things the size of a Subaru — and he has a far-out feel for unwieldy materials like glass, wood, and rope. Everything is woven into objects that are as much paintings and sculptures as they are flags, shields, barriers, and parapets. A wild Rauschenbergian spirit beats here.

Fowler has a way with ungainly scale — things the size of a Subaru — and he has a far-out feel for unwieldy materials like glass, wood, and rope. Ever...

Fowler has a way with ungainly scale — things the size of a Subaru — and he has a far-out feel for unwieldy materials like glass, wood, and rope. Everything is woven into objects that are as much paintings and sculptures as they are flags, shields, barriers, and parapets. A wild Rauschenbergian spirit beats here.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Mom Knows, 2016 Mom Knows, 2016

Mom Knows, 2016

Photo: Courtesy of Diane Rosenstein; Los Angeles
An artist who, in 2014, bought, lived, and showed art in a huge old RV, Madere creates his own sprawling art of moving parts, air machines, and assembled materials in a jamboree of sculptural smarts. An artist who, in 2014, bought, lived, and showed art in a huge old RV, Madere creates his own sprawling art of moving parts, air machines, and assembled materials in a jamboree of sculptural smarts.

An artist who, in 2014, bought, lived, and showed art in a huge old RV, Madere creates his own sprawling art of moving parts, air machines, and assemb...

An artist who, in 2014, bought, lived, and showed art in a huge old RV, Madere creates his own sprawling art of moving parts, air machines, and assembled materials in a jamboree of sculptural smarts.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Unititled, 2015 Unititled, 2015

Unititled, 2015

Photo: Courtesy of David Lewis Gallery; New York
Ursuta, a witchcraft-y master of materials born in the former communist Romania, has made installations with shattered gallery windows, images of Gypsy women awaiting deportation, a catapult that smashed paint balls against walls. One of the best sculptural forces around. Ursuta, a witchcraft-y master of materials born in the former communist Romania, has made installations with shattered gallery windows, images of Gypsy women awaiting deportation, a catapult that smashed paint balls against walls. One of the best sculptural forces around.

Ursuta, a witchcraft-y master of materials born in the former communist Romania, has made installations with shattered gallery windows, images of Gyps...

Ursuta, a witchcraft-y master of materials born in the former communist Romania, has made installations with shattered gallery windows, images of Gypsy women awaiting deportation, a catapult that smashed paint balls against walls. One of the best sculptural forces around.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
With a varied, carefully controlled, always alive approach to painting, Churchman masters many subjects: making reprises of Rousseau; a new residential tower overlooking Central Park; reproductions of 19th-century fabrics that fill us with longing to travel the world. All with a convincingly earnest, almost outsider touch. With a varied, carefully controlled, always alive approach to painting, Churchman masters many subjects: making reprises of Rousseau; a new residential tower overlooking Central Park; reproductions of 19th-century fabrics that fill us with longing to travel the world. All with a convincingly earnest, almost outsider touch.

With a varied, carefully controlled, always alive approach to painting, Churchman masters many subjects: making reprises of Rousseau; a new residentia...

With a varied, carefully controlled, always alive approach to painting, Churchman masters many subjects: making reprises of Rousseau; a new residential tower overlooking Central Park; reproductions of 19th-century fabrics that fill us with longing to travel the world. All with a convincingly earnest, almost outsider touch.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Freud!, 2012¬15 Freud!, 2012¬15

Freud!, 2012¬15

Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Murray Guy; New York.
Deploying wild style, almost expressionist color, and painterly bravado in sexy, strong female nudes, Dancy crosses modernist figuration, neon-lit stripper signs, and large wall drawings done in wonderful washes. I revel in this artist’s work, yet somehow I seem to bicker with her every time I see her. Optically raucous. Deploying wild style, almost expressionist color, and painterly bravado in sexy, strong female nudes, Dancy crosses modernist figuration, neon-lit stripper signs, and large wall drawings done in wonderful washes. I revel in this artist’s work, yet somehow I seem to bicker with her every time I see her. Optically raucous.

Deploying wild style, almost expressionist color, and painterly bravado in sexy, strong female nudes, Dancy crosses modernist figuration, neon-lit str...

Deploying wild style, almost expressionist color, and painterly bravado in sexy, strong female nudes, Dancy crosses modernist figuration, neon-lit stripper signs, and large wall drawings done in wonderful washes. I revel in this artist’s work, yet somehow I seem to bicker with her every time I see her. Optically raucous.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Red Bouquet, 2016 Red Bouquet, 2016

Red Bouquet, 2016

Photo: Courtesy of the Artist and Night Gallery
Quinn’s intensely vivisected Frankensteinian faces and viscously spliced figures make a nation of loved, colorful portraits. Bold shifts of scale, fungal surfaces that slide between smooth and gloppy, and attacks on integrated pictorial wholeness. Quinn’s intensely vivisected Frankensteinian faces and viscously spliced figures make a nation of loved, colorful portraits. Bold shifts of scale, fungal surfaces that slide between smooth and gloppy, and attacks on integrated pictorial wholeness.

Quinn’s intensely vivisected Frankensteinian faces and viscously spliced figures make a nation of loved, colorful portraits. Bold shifts of scale, fun...

Quinn’s intensely vivisected Frankensteinian faces and viscously spliced figures make a nation of loved, colorful portraits. Bold shifts of scale, fungal surfaces that slide between smooth and gloppy, and attacks on integrated pictorial wholeness.

Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine
Photo: Courtesy of the artist and M+B Gallery; Los Angeles
1 / 22

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