Artist Instagrams to Watch During Quarantine
Self-quarantining and social distancing restrictions are ramping up across the world. Universities, galleries, venues, and museums have closed their doors for the time being, resulting in countless event cancellations and offering no certainty regarding future scheduling. Now that the rug has been pulled from under them, millions of artists are redirecting their audiences by doubling down on their online presence. When desperate times call for desperate measures, Instagram becomes the preferred platform for visibility and profits. Here’s a quick list of rising artist Instagram accounts that you should scroll all the way through while you’re tuning out your Zoom session or just waiting for the oven timer to go off.
113 Likes, 0 Comments - @sadgrads2020 on Instagram: "Rithika Pandey, Fine Art @ Carmarthen School of Art (@chashmishkahiki / www.chashmish-..."
As a recent graduate myself, I empathize wholeheartedly with the sadness and disappointment that thousands of graduates are experiencing due to the cancellation of their BFA and MFA degree shows. However, instead of dwelling on the circumstances, visual art students all over the United Kingdom sprang into action and developed a submission based Instagram account to showcase the fruits of their educational labor in one way or another. Each post has multiple images and links directly to the featured artist’s profile and portfolio, so there’s something for everyone to resonate with just the scroll of a finger.
Rebecca Ness: @rebeccanessart
563 Likes, 11 Comments - Rebecca Ness (@rebeccanessart) on Instagram: "Excited to have "A Drawing Party" at @feriaarco with @ninomiergallery ♥️ | oil on linen, 50x60..."
Rebecca Ness, a recent graduate from Yale’s MFA program, has been gaining a lot of attention following her NYC debut at 1969 Gallery last September. Her compositions consist of both first person and voyeuristic perspectives full of saturated colors, nuanced mark-making, and organic motions. Ness uses gouache and oils to capture and inspect mundane and routine moments that come with simply inhabiting a human body today. Tapping a pencil over a sketchbook, scrolling through the news, picking out one’s clothes, nicking one’s leg while shaving, turning the pages of the magazine — Ness examines and deconstructs the subtlety in all of these actions that we participate in subconsciously. If you appreciate reading between the lines in the art of the everyday through a lens of queerness, Rebecca Ness is a great artist for you to check out.
Barry Hazard: @barryhazard
151 Likes, 15 Comments - Barry Hazard (@barryhazard) on Instagram: "Canyon 2020, check out the little guy down by the water....this painting is up at HallSpace..."
Barry Hazard isn’t just an artist: he also works as a curator, a construction supervisor, and youth worker. His work is best described as a series of sculpture/paintings depicting landscapes typically associated with the beautiful and the sublime. Hazard also incorporates the impacts of human intervention in these natural spaces. Hazard’s landscape creations exist on “tongue-shaped” planes that jut out of white walls, redefining the meaning of space and environment and bridging the gap between 2D and 3D art. His works combine the technical qualities of architectural mock-ups and the painterliness and textures of contemporary painting. If you have an appreciation for landscapes, you definitely shouldn’t miss this artist’s Instagram.
Cindy Hsu: @og.skinman
65 Likes, 0 Comments - cindy hsu (@og.skinman) on Instagram: "Druk has the need for speeeEeeeed 🤘"
Cindy Hsu’s work embodies both playfulness and power in a diasporic context. Hsu, a Taiwanese artist living and working in NYC, is best known for her gawkily inexact replica sculptures and intimate miniature dioramas of interior spaces. Hsu reflects on her own experiences through celebrating special and every day cultural objects that she’s attached to. I specifically appreciate her sculpted Corelle Gold Butterfly patterned dining plates, a staple in thousands of Asian immigrant households across the nation. She renders her pieces as if they’re painted illustrations that have been ripped out of a book and converted into three-dimensional objects with the snap of a finger. Hsu’s playfulness emerges when she uses these “illustrative” sculptures to intervene with daily life. Be sure to have a look and a laugh while scrolling through her Instagram profile.
Gabrielle Garland: @gabrielle_garland
256 Likes, 24 Comments - Gabrielle Garland (@gabrielle_garland) on Instagram: "Acrylic on canvas over panel 29 x 22. #gabriellegarland #coronavirus #covid_19"
Most of Gabrielle Garland’s work consists of distorted suburban interiors and exteriors. There’s a sense of quiet, eerie foreboding that rises through the warped vinyl siding, gnarled chair legs, and jet-puffed couch cushions she paints with conflicting perspectives and vibrant colors. I affectionately refer to her work’s energy as “sweating out a fever dream at Grandma’s house”. Recently, Garland has been delving into more abstract, single-plane works with fewer referential motifs. It’s exciting to see Garland’s focus shift from the representational to something more disconnected. If you’re interested in interior spaces and a bit of mystery, Gabrielle Garland is right up your alley.