Beyond Yayoi Kusama, 5 more women artists you should know in 2024: from Wangechi Mutu’s formidable female figures to Anna Weyant, the ‘millennial Botticelli’ who just broke up with Larry Gagosian
- Yes, we might know all about Yayoi Kusama’s pumpkins and polka-dots – but do you know these other trailblazing talents making a mark in the visual arts?
- Christine Wang’s playful portraits have roasted Leonardo DiCaprio and Kim Kardashian, while Loie Hollowell transforms the female form into bodily landscapes and Indonesia’s Christine Ay Tjoe channels raw emotions onto colourful canvases
For centuries women have been relegated to the margins of the art establishment’s narrative, reduced to being merely muses or models, their worth determined by male artists. Historically therefore, there has been a startlingly drastic underrepresentation of the role women have played in the evolution of art.
“They were just never noticed,” says Lee Meiling, head of 20th century & contemporary art at Phillips Asia, who says it’s taken decades, but the balance has finally shifted. Since the 1960s, when the Feminist Art movement hit, women have slowly emerged from the shadows. “Now in the 21st century there is a strong demand for building a more diverse and inclusive environment across all industries,” says Lee, noting that the art world is no exception. “Women and individuals from diverse backgrounds are entering the spotlight.”
Female painters in particular are garnering increasing attention from collectors, curators and institutions worldwide, their work often setting records at auction. “Women are as brilliant as male artists, they bring a distinct perspective and life experience to interpreting their thoughts and inner feelings [which inspires] their work,” says Lee.
Here then are six women painters who are breathing new life into the age-old medium of painting.
1. Christine Ay Tjoe
Ay Tjoe is often described as a painter, but the Indonesian artist insists that her practice is better described as drawing. At art school, she studied an array of printmaking techniques including drypoint and intaglio, as well as drawing. At the heart of her works is the use of lines – whether they are gestural strokes, faint sketches or aggressive scribbles.
In some cases, she uses her hands to rub and scratch oil sticks onto her works. Ay Tjoe’s canvases often contain explosive marks amid bold splodges of colour, giving them a raw intensity that has them almost quivering with emotion. While the canvases appear abstract, traces of plants, animals and even people can be deciphered upon closer inspection. She often plays with opposing ideas: dark and light, form and emptiness, freedom and restraint.
2. Loie Hollowell
