Every month, we comb through the thousands of exciting artists featured on the Artnet Gallery Network and choose five that we find exceptionally interesting to highlight. This November’s group of artists all have work featured in either solo or group exhibitions that are currently on view, and we will definitely be keeping tabs on them to see what they do next.
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Anousha Payne at Stellarhighway, New York
Anousha Payne, Corleck Head (stung by a bee) (2022). Courtesy of Stellarhighway.
London-based artist Anousha Payne’s work explores magic, myths, and symbolism, and often draws on themes and characters from Indian folklore. Via these avenues, Payne is able to touch on both personal and universal ideas of transformation and self-awareness. Her most recent body of work—currently on view in “Thick Mud Slowly Oozing” online at Stellarhighway—centers on the Corleck head, a carved stone featuring three faces that was found in Ireland in an archaeological dig. Using the three-face motif as a starting point, Payne engages with the genre of interpretive self-portraiture, drawing on her dreams and personal introspective journey.
Emmanuelle Rapin at Galerie Akonzept, Berlin
Emmanuelle Rapin, A Conductive Space (2022). Courtesy of Galerie Akonzept.
Emmanuelle Rapin’s artistic practice seeks to unify the act of making with the final artwork. Frequently employing methods such as embroidery and sewing, the works’ threads serve both as an index of the processes used to make the piece as well as its subject matter. Similarly, punctures, perforations, and tears in various material function as theme and technique simultaneously. In “À notre seuil, ne veuillez point toucher” (“At our threshold, please do not touch”), on view at Galerie Akonzept through November 18, Rapin applies her signature artistic style to an exploration of iconic feminine representations, such as Bia de Medici and the angel from Dürer’s Melencolia (1514). Additionally, Rapin includes a variety of materials and motifs commonly associated with the vanitas genre, including bones, gems, and butterflies.
Fiona Rae at Miles McEnery Gallery, New York
Fiona Rae, Drawing (last night I saw the strangest dream) (2022). Courtesy of Miles McEnery Gallery.
British artist Fiona Rae is perhaps best known for paintings that draw from an incredibly diverse range of inspiration, from Abstract Expressionism to Japanese anime and traditional typography. Rae’s inaugural solo show at Miles McEnery Gallery in New York (through November 26) features both recent paintings and works on paper. In her latest series, Rae investigates the many ways that abstraction operates both in visual art and in literature. Using lines drawn from classic and popular literature as titles of and as visual motifs, she challenges art hierarchies and at the same time explores new dimensions of the numerous influences that inform her work.
Daniel Heil at Galerie Voss, Düsseldorf
Daniel Heil, B-430 (2022). Courtesy of Galerie Voss.
In his current solo exhibition at Galerie Voss, “The Wheel of Dharma,” the Dusseldorf-based artist Daniel Heil engages with Zen Buddhism and the path to nirvana. One highlight of this show, on view through December 3, are a series of blue paintings based on zoomed-in images of natural elements such as algae, water, and fire, and the similarities Heil found among them. The painterly brushstrokes are his interpretations of these similarities, and are also influenced by the audial rhythms that the artist heard when making the work—namely, he has begun listening to classical music from different eras in the studio. The confluence of these different inputs result in meditative, beguiling compositions that seek to unify the different physical and psychological elements that go into art making.
Alexandros Vasmoulakis at Hollis Taggart, New York
Alexandros Vasmoulakis, Sunday Blessings (11) (2022). Courtesy of Hollis Taggart.
“Journeys” is the Greek artist Alexandros Vasmoulakis’s first solo show in New York City, and the first with Hollis Taggart since joining the gallery’s roster in 2020. Opening November 17, 2022, the show includes both recent paintings and site-specific wallpaper installations and is broadly informed by the visual culture of Greece—both ancient and contemporary. Inspired by the juxtaposition between ancient Greek ruins and modern graffiti, as well as the stylistic influence of Abstract Expressionism and rave culture, the colorful, kaleidoscopic compositions give the impression of the natural world, like flora, fauna, or even microorganisms. The works also have an intense tactility, achieved through the use of a power washer, which Vasmoulakis uses to “carve” into the thickly layered paint.