In an era shaped by digital media and conceptual installations, a new wave of emerging artists is reimagining figuration through unconventional techniques. By incorporating experimental methods, non-traditional materials, and hybrid practices, these artists are pushing the boundaries of what figurative art can be. From layered mixed-media portraits to deconstructed forms that blur the boundaries between abstraction and realism, their work challenges traditional norms while retaining the emotional and narrative depth of figuration.
Here’s a selection of 10 emerging artists, leading the charge, and an exploration of how they’re reshaping the future of figurative art, delving into the techniques driving this evolution.
Kwaku Yaro
Kwaku Yaro employs the technique of pointillism to create portraits of members of the Labadi community from his homeland of Ghana, imbuing them with a unique contemplative quality. The artist complements his brushstrokes by composing a textile patchwork created from a living fabric of recycled materials. He meticulously creates portraits in polypropylene, a synthetic material found in shopping bags and rugs, giving his art a tangible connection to everyday life. In his portraits, Yaro transgresses rigid cultural norms of body representation, deconstructing harmoniously and meticulously composed fabrics on canvas. These artworks are more than just images, they are a self-critical commentary on societal expectations. By deconstructing traditional notions of beauty and giving voice to his subjects, he challenges unrealistic standards and celebrates the diversity of the human form.
The artist’s use of recycled fabrics (wax prints, burlap sacks, and shopping bags) speaks volumes about his commitment to sustainability. Every stitch, every piece of material, whispers a story about the unique fashion and lifestyle of her community. Yaro breathes life into discarded objects, transforming them into vibrant art. This act of transformation is more than just aesthetically pleasing, it is a call to action. Using discarded materials, he highlights the urgency of waste management and the importance of community development. In his work, Yaro gives new meaning to ordinary objects, transforming them into symbols of hope and change.
Nana Mandl
Nana Mandl explores the interaction between the digital and the material in her tactile collages, where embroidery functions as a gestural brushstroke. Fascinated by the multiple visual stimuli of everyday life, the artist explores themes of sensory overload, sexualisation, and self-identity, all imbued with a sense of fantasy that reflects the collective imagination of her generation. Mandl uses mixed media and directly involves the viewer in her work, collecting seemingly unrelated materials such as pixelated internet photos, fabric scraps, drawings, stickers, prints, and paintings, transforming them into vibrant sculptural forms that boldly transcend the two-dimensionality of the canvas.
Mandl often depicts moments of daily life with her daughter in her portraits, constantly experimenting with the materiality of the canvas surface, where different fabrics and bright colours intersect to create a complex network of images, each of which creates a microcosm of reflective surfaces with double meaning. She transforms fluid elements of visual culture, especially those from the digital and advertising spheres, into tangible experiences, inviting viewers to immerse themselves in her unique world.
The text that accompanies her collages plays an important role in her artistic expression, lending a discursive touch to her work. Her works reveal the visual residues of digital image production, storage and reproduction. The rhythm of words and rhymes adds new depth, leading viewers down unexpected paths. In this context, stitched and embroidered elements serve both as an anchoring force and a counterweight to the rapid production and dissemination of images characteristic of digital technologies.
Aleksandra Nowicka
In her works, Aleksandra Nowicka actively moves in the field of figuration, drawing on frames from family photo albums. The artist uses the meticulous details of photorealism, inviting viewers to embark on a journey through the time of collective and social memory. Her canvases are like time machines, transporting viewers back to the 1990s, to the warmth of the family home and childhood. Through a careful examination of photographic details that capture the textures of furniture, curtain fabrics, patterned carpets, all hallmarks of the design and aesthetics of the time, the artist seeks to reveal the emotions subtly hidden in the image.
These effects confront the viewer directly, arousing a resonance with the landscape of the subconscious and personal memories. Each brushstroke is a question about the power of objects, their details, the surrounding matter and the fragmentary images that overlap in the process of discovering one’s identity. Nowicka encourages the viewer to reflect on how traditional realism can still resonate with our everyday life, encouraging reflection and introspection. These works can be a point of reference to delve into one’s memory, to extract old feelings, experiences, and associations through the resonance of richly detailed interiors, vividly complemented by painted social scenes.
![Aleksandra Nowicka, Wieczorynka ["Evening TV Cartoon for Children"], 150x100cm, oil on canvas, 2023](https://static.contemporarylynx.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/wieczorynka-130x90cm-olej-na-plotnie-2022.jpg)
Polina Barskaya
In her paintings, Polina Barskaya delves into the psychological depths of her subjects, revealing the intersection of intimate perspectives on family histories and personal lives charged with hidden emotional intensity. She portrays individuals in their personal sanctuaries, capturing moments of silent contemplation during her stay in Tuscany, Umbria, and Lazio. Her works go beyond the simple depiction of everyday life, creating narratives with vivid and expressive brushstrokes that highlight the elusive link between intimacy and isolation.
Barskaya’s keen observations highlight the psychological intensity of her subjects, showing the intricate dynamics of familial love. Her works are not merely visual representations, but are instead narratives intricately shaped by her brushstroke, inviting viewers to reflect on the human experience, where physical closeness can coexist with psychological distance. With bold contours and distorted spatial forms, she creates a rich sense of depth and texture. The vivid colours and clarity of light imbue her scenes with a melancholic aura. Through her meticulous attention to ordinary moments, Barskaya reveals the intimate essence of her subjects with every brushstroke. Windows act as portals to the outside world, while shadows on picturesque terraces hint at themes of distance and introspection.
Pallavi Singh
Pallavi Singh’s paintings boldly challenge traditional and often binary perceptions of sexuality, gender, and beauty. The artist shifts the narrative towards a more affirmative interpretation, showing different forms of the body, even non-female ones, reinterpreting the theme of art, namely the representation of body care, usually dominated by the male gaze and the objectification of the female body. Instead of focusing on women, the author focuses on the male body, which, despite cultural diversity, is often presented in society in a uniform and stereotypical way. This deliberate emphasis on the male subject sparks a dialogue on the inherent contradictions in the representation of bodies in visual culture.
Singh’s portraits are both fragmented and dynamic, revealing the characteristics of the male form in intimate and affirmative social contexts. These works are characterised by an off-centre gaze and shared moments of intimacy that challenge conventional, often objectifying perspectives. The artist encourages viewers to reevaluate their preconceived notions of body image, drawing inspiration from Indian miniatures and contemporary art. Deliberately shifting her focus, Singh challenges male dominance and explores male beauty practices by capturing the moments before, during and after bathing, along with the social rituals that accompany it. Delving into the culture of grooming in a traditionally male sphere, Singh’s work has the potential to redefine beauty standards, demonstrating her commitment to women’s rights in India.
Gonzalo García
Gonzalo García’s oeuvre delves into the intimate and often sensitive world of self-portraiture, exploring themes of sexuality, vulnerability, and hidden violence. His portraits and still lifes, infused with a palpable sense of the body, invite viewers to discover deeper narratives within the figurative painting. García masterfully blends textures and colours, sometimes incorporating subtle sexual motifs such as flowers or merging human figures with animal forms, creating a unique visual language. His oil on canvas works, characterised by a lightness of brushstroke and a delicate transparency of the painted forms, often depict the intertwining of the human body with animal features, such as dogs, pigs, and horses. Inspired by the powerful portraiture of Paula Rego, García challenges the power dynamics of a patriarchal society, reinterpreting customs that evoke concepts of death, vulnerability, and tension. The expressive power of his poetic language lies in the juxtaposition of symbolic dichotomies, such as elements of violence and delicacy.
García’s artistic journey began with anatomical studies and evolved into an abstract style, reflecting overlapping aesthetic elements and influences from medieval art and baroque painting, along with influences from 1970s Mexican cinema and contemporary painting. His metamorphic sensibility is evident in his use of shapes, colours and textures, complemented by a muted palette and an anatomical approach that allows for thematic experimentation. Garcia adapts and reinterprets these influences within his own unique universe, creating a captivating blend of themes. Death, visual culture, and Mexican folklore intertwine with notions of identity and political activism, creating a unique atmosphere that leaves a lasting impression on viewers.
Edna Baud
Edna Baud’s figurative paintings intertwine technology and everyday life, creating fragmented narratives that challenge traditional notions of linearity of time. Her unique visual language fuses elements of painting and visual culture, creating a hyper-realistic aesthetic reminiscent of neo-noir cinema. Baud skillfully employs cinematic techniques such as montage and depth of field to create a sense of depth and intrigue. She draws inspiration from a wide range of sources, including illustration, philosophy, speculative fiction, contemporary 3D productions, and web imagery, interweaving them into fragmented frames captured within a larger narrative. This approach allows her to question the driving forces behind socio-political events, as seen in her painting “WATCHTOWER,” which draws inspiration from the writings of Walter Benjamin and the first mass shooting in the United States in 1966, juxtaposing these historical events with philosophical and cultural texts.
Baud’s work is deeply connected to the context in which it is exhibited, often addressing issues of decolonisation in Central and Eastern Europe. Disrupting and challenging linear time and space, she subverts traditional hierarchical structures and imagines a future in which the present and the past are intertwined. Her work embodies a growing trend of young figurative painters using their art as a tool for social change and influence.
Avijit Dutta
In his works, Avijit Dutta mainly uses ink, charcoal, and earthy colours, intertwining them with traditional printing techniques. The result of his pictorial experiments is the presentation of different, interpenetrating silhouettes that create a crowded ensemble of grey bodies covered with the repetitive motif of a paper bag. The artist maintains a colour palette dominated by shades of rust and earthy tones and skillfully uses symbolic references to small functional objects common in the lower and middle class communities of India, deliberately narrowing the expressive language to transform these objects (mosquito nets, bricks, nests, natural brushes, or the ubiquitous large bags) into metaphors that represent different conditions of functioning in society.
In his latest body of work, Dutta explores the cultural significance of the “thonga”, a small handmade paper bag that symbolises the struggles of common people. This bag is a means of collecting rations, symbolising the continuous struggle for basic survival and underlining the feeling of being trapped in a monotonous existence. Dutta’s anonymous figures, depicted with covered faces, are swallowed and spat out of bags in surreal and distorted, larger-than-life proportions, evoking themes of refuge and isolation. It presents a provocative perspective on social norms and gender issues and also addresses mental health challenges, reflecting on the socio-cultural fabric of the city of Howrah, illustrating the sense of entrapment associated with specific moments of emotional experience. In this perspective, the past is transformed into a living and evolving narrative that the artist actively chooses to rewrite, reconstruct and transform through the imaginative reinterpretation of architectural spaces.
Vasyl Tkachenko (Lyakh)
Vasyl Tkachenko’s artistic journey is a profound exploration of memory and identity, expressed through fascinating experiments in painting, film, music, and photography. His canvases, especially his large-scale self-portraits, testify to the profound impact of war on the subconscious. Through his art, Tkachenko seeks to capture the essence of the conflict, intertwining personal experiences, intercepted news, accounts from the front and raw emotions drawn from his community.
The artist meticulously reconstructs real-life scenes, drawing on descriptions and documentation, turning himself into a sensitive observer of the ongoing, poignant and inevitable drama of war. His absence during key events, especially those that occurred in his hometown of Mariupol, is a recurring theme in his works that conveys the artist’s guilt for having escaped and nostalgia for his country. Inspired by echoes of the past captured in old photographs, Tkachenko’s art becomes a poignant testimony to the enduring power of memory, where the realm of imagination vividly dialogues with documented present events. His work is a testament to the strength of the human spirit that persists even in the face of the shared trauma of armed conflict.
Alexander Kryzhanovskyi
Alexander Kryzhanovskyi’s paintings delve into the realms of personal memory, stream of consciousness, and dreamscapes, expressed through simplified cubist aesthetics. His abstract works are layered narratives, filled with vivid colours and symbolic elements drawn from a personal set of memories, composing a kind of personal mythology. These symbols become a medium for conflict, identification, and healing. Ranging from simplified human figures to fragments of architecture, his paintings elevate the overlooked details of everyday life into a complex and layered narrative. Kryzhanovskyi seeks to bring invisible forces and subtle nuances to the forefront, juxtaposing them with splashes of colour on the canvas, highlighting the emotional significance of symbolically isolated figures.
Through his exploration of form, vivid colour palettes and simplified, fragmented figures, both in his paintings and ceramic sculptures, Kryzhanovskyi challenges the dominance of excessive rationality and material culture in contemporary society. He invites viewers to engage on an emotional level, urging them to delve deeper into the landscapes of his personal world. Kryzhanovskyi provides meticulous descriptions and commentary for each work, placing them directly in the exhibition space. This thoughtful approach allows viewers to look beyond the surface of his art, discovering the broader context of his work and enriching their own interpretations.
