5 FEMALE ARTISTS TO WATCH

*“D’apres l’Olympia” by Julie Curtiss. Photo courtesy of the artist’s website.*

Looking for new artists to follow? Don’t miss our roundup of five female artists on the rise, including Eliza Douglas, Trish Tillman, Julie Curtiss, Christina Quarles and Genevieve Gaignard.

Eliza Douglas

*“It Could Be True” by Eliza Douglas. Photo courtesy of Air de Paris.*

You may recognize Eliza Douglas from the Balenciaga runway, a Helmut Lang advertisement or fellow artist Anne Imhof’s “Faust” (a performance piece that garnered Imhof the 2017 Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion prize). Wherever you’ve seen her, Douglas is certain to make many more waves this year. The artist, 33, has captivated the art world with her paintings of disembodied hands and feet, realistically rendered, that dissolve into trails of color. Her rise to recognition has been swift—just last year, Douglas had her first solo gallery show at Air de Paris. The same year, her work was shown at Galerie Buchholz in New York and the Schinkel Pavillion in Berlin. This past May, Douglas’s work was included in a show at the New York Jewish Museum.

Trish Tillman

*“Accumulator” by Trish Tillman. Photo courtesy of the artist’s website.*

A Virginia native who now lives and works in New York, Trish Tillman works in abstract sculpture that incorporates unconventional materials (such as hair), upholstery and found objects. Her early works incorporating horse hair, chains and leather evoke a sleek, kinky aesthetic. Now, Tillman is working more with traditional textiles such as linen and upholstery fabric.

Julie Curtiss

*“D’apres l’origine du monde” by Julie Curtiss. Photo courtesy of the artist’s website.*

A French artist based in New York, Julie Curtiss creates surreal, captivating paintings that explore female sexuality and identity. Hair often features prominently in her works, obscuring and taking the place of female anatomy. This year, Curtiss has been included in exhibitions at 106 Green Gallery, Anton Kern Gallery and CONDO in New York City, as well as at Various Small Fires in Los Angeles and T293 in Rome.

Christina Quarles

*“Double Down” by Christina Quarles. Photo courtesy of the artist’s website.*

The issue of displacement runs throughout the work of Christina Quarles. A black woman who is often mistaken as white, Quarles uses painting to grapple with her identity, as well as modes of categorization that are used to marginalize groups of people. Quarles currently lives in Los Angeles. Recently, her work has been shown at David Zwirner, Hammer Museum, Gagosian Gallery in Miami and Kohn Gallery.

Genevieve Gaignard

*“Hidden Fences” by Genevieve Gaignard. Photo courtesy of the artist’s website.*

A graduate of Yale’s MFA program in photography, Genevieve Gaignard primarily uses self-portraiture to explore race, femininity, class and their intersections. Born to a black father and white mother, Gaignard interrogates the notion of “passing” as a certain race and uses her own body as the chief site of exploration. Her work blends the high and low brow to create humorous, dynamic portraits. Gaignard’s work has been exhibited at the California African American Museum, Diane Rothstein Gallery and Shulamit Nazarian.