Abstract painting has continued to dominate in 2023, with a host of emerging names making a sizable dent in the market with energetic works inspired by the body and its interior world. Many artists have also successfully embraced an expanded painting practice, working canvases into site-specific, immersive installations, or showing them alongside sculptural and sound elements. This year, psychological themes, unruly bodies, and political collapse have taken center stage.
There has also been a notable move beyond rigid fine art practices, seeing artists experimenting with other forms such as opera, fashion, set design, and music. The artists on this list have seen an increase in their profile this year, with institutional shows, in-depth profiles, major prize wins, unexpected leaps on the auction scene, or exciting ventures into new formats. Expect to see more of them in the new year.
Mire Lee
Mire Lee was standout at the 2022 Venice Biennale with a hellish structure dripping in sculptural gore and gristle. This year, the Korean artist opened her first solo institutional exhibition in the U.S., bringing flesh and technology together to chilling effect. “Black Sun” at New York’s New Museum featured a site-specific installation, with Lee’s signature visceral bodily decay and kinetic elements. She also showed in the long-running 58th Carnegie International until spring, with Untitled (My Pittsburgh Sculpture) (2022) questioning how we understand or make sense of violence and pain.
Audiences can expect her work to keep expanding in 2024. In June, she told the New York Times that she is “interested in making big work, like architectural scale. I’m interested in making more, like, theatrical works… I want to be freer than now.”
