Who will be next year’s household names? Each year, we ask art world insiders to tell us who they have their eye on. Seven key players tell us which artists they think will have a breakout year in 2024.

Emilija Škarnulytė

Emilija Škarnulytė, Sunken Cities (2021). Video installation.

“Lithuanian-born artist and filmmaker Emilija Škarnulytė makes films and immersive installations that explore the realms of deep time, mythology, geology and ecology. Juxtaposing the languages of the documentary and the imaginary, her work addresses a wide range of references, from the remnants of Cold War machinery and underwater archeological sites to tributaries of the Amazon River and deep sea explorations.

The hypnotic low level sounds accompany the scenes of a mermaid-like figure swimming in many of her films, creating a sense of otherworldly, yet vividly present, non-human perspective. Featured in several international biennales including Gwangju, South Korea and Helsinki, Finland, Škarnulytė’s recent films—which will be exhibited in major institutional exhibitions at Canal Projects in New York and Kunsthalle Trondheim in Norway in 2024—reflect her ongoing interests in the future archeology, the exploitation of nature, and our precarious position as a species.”

–Sook-Kyung Lee, Curator of the 14th Gwangju Biennale

Enzo Camacho & Ami Lien 

Installation views of ‘Offerings for Escalante’, Para Site, Hong Kong, 2023. Photo: Studio Lights On.

“This autumn, Ami Lien and Enzo Camacho’s multivalent research-based exhibition “Offerings for Escalante” opened at Para Site in Hong Kong—their first institutional show in the region—culminating in the harrowing as well as moving experimental documentary Langit Lupa.

The artist duo have been collaborating for almost a decade, building continuously on an interdisciplinary foundation that explores themes of labour, capital, communities, and land justice. The timely show will travel to Berlin CCA, Glasgow International, and MoMA PS1, which will put their relevant work on the radar of many more new audiences.”

–Michèle Ruo Yi Landolt, Director, Asymmetry Art Foundation 

Olivia Erlanger

Olivia Erlanger, 2020. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Bobby Doherty.

“Olivia Erlanger’s cinematic multi-media practice, spanning installation, sculpture, and video, explores the nuanced experience of existence amid societal breakdown. Through a seamless blend of humor, horror, and the surreal, she addresses the collapse of the American Dream and the complexities surrounding living in the midst of a climate catastrophe.

More timely now than ever, her inaugural solo exhibition at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston extends her fascination with suburbia and the broader built environment to engage with career-long themes such as world-building and the myth of social mobility. Erlanger’s work resonates with economic and social conditions that extend far beyond the walls of the museum.”

–Hesse McGraw, executive director, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston

WangShui

Work by WangShui at the Whitney Biennial. Photo courtesy of the artist.

“WangShui body of work is multifaceted—spanning film, installation, sculpture and painting—but it is the artist’s recent series of paintings, where they spread oils as thinly as possible to illuminate abrasions made on aluminium panels, that caught my attention.

One of WangShui’s aluminium paintings, an incredible three-panelled work, is currently on view at the Guggenheim in New York, as part of their exhibition ‘Going Dark: The Contemporary Figure at the Edge of Visibility’. WangShui also has a current solo exhibition on view at Haus der Kunst in Munich, running until April. Notably, the Whitney Museum acquired one of the artist’s paintings in 2021, and Time Magazine have also just included WangShui in their “Time100 Next” list.

WangShui’s work merges together nature and technology, human and machine—I believe their work is particularly resonant in this very moment given the current discourse surrounding artificial intelligence and its influence.”

—Lawrence Van Hagen, collector, curator, and art advisor

Kim Lim

“The work of Singaporean born artist Kim Lim—who sadly passed away in 1997—has not historically enjoyed the attention that it deserves, is continuing to be comprehensively re-evaluated.

The recently opened show at the Hepworth Wakefield in the U.K. and her upcoming homecoming to Singapore in 2024 with an exhibition at the National Gallery of Singapore looks set to cement her rightful position as a key figure in late 20th century sculpture and printmaking, and as a national treasure of Singapore.”

—Magnus Renfrew, co-founder, Art SG

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley

Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley,
Thou Shall Not Assume (2023). Photo: © HAM/Helsinki Biennial/Sonja Hyytiäinen.

“A leading voice in contemporary art today, Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley’s work explores the empowerment of Black and trans people, critically examining the violence and segregation that these communities have suffered and continue to suffer.

At once disturbing, playful and surprising, Brathwaite-Shirley’s work skilfully uses video games and interactive installations to deeply engage audiences. I look forward to seeing where this thoroughness and sensitivity will take Brathwaite-Shirley in the coming year and beyond.”

—Bettina Kames, director, LAS Art Foundation

Paloma Contreras Lomas

Paloma Contreras Lomas, Amar a Dios en Tierra de Indios, Es Oficio Maternal (2023). Photo: Lance Gerber. Courtesy of the artist and Desert X.

“Paloma Contreras Lomas has a unique way of tackling complex social issues around gender, class segregation, and constructed middle-class identity—especially within her native country of Mexico—using humor and political satire as tools to communicate with clarity and immediacy. Her mixed-media installations, films, and drawings invite interaction from viewers and transport them in a parallel world that has much to do with reality.

From her start with the collective Biquini Wax, to her personal investigation into the histories embedded in the Mexican territory, she showed an acumen that struck me in a young artist. We’re very proud to debut her work in New York for the first time at CARA, where we’ll present also a new iteration of her acclaimed life-size car installation exhibited at Desert X.”

–Manuela Moscoso, executive director and chief curator, Center for Art, Research and Alliances

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