Art
Artsy Editorial
“Artists on Our Radar” is a monthly series focused on five artists who have our attention. Utilizing our art expertise and Artsy data, we’ve determined which artists made an impact this past month through new gallery representation, exhibitions, auctions, art fairs, or fresh works on Artsy.
B. 1979, New York. Lives and works in New York.
Jessica Cannon’s paintings have a transcendental, meditative quality, depicting refracted sunrises and celestial movements in a calming pastel palette. These works all have a clear focus on the horizon, as seen in the joyful daybreak of Dawn Reaching Day (2024)—featured in a current group show at David B. Smith Gallery in Denver—and the cooler-hued center of the large painting Night Pleats (tryptich) (2023). Tiny brushstrokes of iridescent pigments make these works shimmer, idealizing the movements of the cosmos.
Cannon earned a BFA from Tufts University and an MFA from Parsons School of Design, and has had several solo shows at galleries in New York and Los Angeles. Last month, Gavlak announced its representation of the artist, who is currently included in a group show at LAMB in London, in addition to the exhibition at David B. Smith. Cannon teaches drawing and painting at CUNY Queens College.
—Josie Thaddeus-Johns
B. 1992, Paris. Lives and works in Montreuil, France.
Adrien Fricheteau invites viewers into an alternate universe where the mundane communes with the fantastical in his solo exhibition “Domino Days,” on view at sobering in Paris through June 16th. The surrealistic oil-on-wood paintings in the show combine timeless motifs, like natural landscapes and weather phenomena, with relics of modern life, like semitrucks and fire extinguishers. Presented in absurd configurations, these pairings provoke thought and amusement in equal measure. For instance, “tube man” inflatables—usually found writhing in strip mall parking lots—take flight amid a serene woodland setting in Coucher de Soleil à l’Orée de la Forêt (2024), prompting philosophical musings. If a tube man wiggles in the forest, but no one was there to see it, did it really happen?
Central to Fricheteau’s practice is his intricate framing technique, which adds another layer of depth and absurdity to his works. Elaborately carved wood frames, reminiscent of medieval panel paintings, house additional surfaces that Fricheteau adorns with whimsical touches—such as in Chienchien (2024), where a tiny poodle with demonic red eyes reigns over a tranquil landscape.
After earning his BA in fine arts from Geneva University of Art and Design, Fricheteau received a post-graduate diploma from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. This spring, in addition to his solo show at sobering, he was featured in a two-person exhibition at Centre d’art contemporain in Pontmain, France.
—Jordan Huelskamp
B. 1983, Kerala, India. Lives and works in Kochi, India.
Siji Krishnan’s work demands close looking. Her scenes of family life, inspired by her upbringing in the countryside of southern India, are carefully embedded in layers of rice paper and washes of pastel hues, including many shades of soft, golden yellow, brown, and peach. The warmth of Krishnan’s colors carries into the narratives she captures, inspired by the Sanskrit phrase vasudhaiva kutumbakam, meaning “the world is one family.”
Krishnan’s latest works—on view through June 8th in “Liminal,” the artist’s U.S. solo debut, at Michael Kohn Gallery in Los Angeles—continue to visualize universal themes of human connection and our relationship with the natural world. In these new paintings, Krishnan delves into motherhood and what it means to create and give life—both as a mother herself and as an artist. This is evident in the striking Womb (2023–24), which shows a pregnant woman reflected in a sparkling body of water. Parallels between the natural world and the pregnant body are drawn throughout the series, resulting in works that intriguingly linger between landscape and portrait.
Krishnan earned her MFA from the Sarojini Naidu School of Fine Arts in 2007. Her work is included in several major collections, including the National Gallery of Victoria, the Dallas Museum of Art, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art in New Delhi, and the Rachofsky Collection in Dallas. Recently, her works have also been featured at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke in Mumbai.
—Casey Lesser
B. 1990, Munich. Lives and works in Amsterdam.
German textile artist Joana Schneider’s practice is anchored in care for the natural world. Using sustainable materials like reused ropes, threads derived from recycled plastic, and natural dyes, she twines together enchanting, abstracted organic forms. Her sprawling wall hangings evoke scaly lichen or paisley-patterned cellular formations, while pieces from her “Vertical Garden” series suggest bundles of pea pods awaiting harvest. Mossy rocks, shells, and beds of oysters also crop up in her work, which will be on view in Rademakers Gallery’s presentation at VOLTA Basel later this month.
Schneider’s foray into fibers came through her studies at the Royal Academy of the Arts in The Hague, where she originally enrolled as a fashion student. (An enduring love for clothes was evident in her 2023 Polly Pocket–inspired solo show at Rademakers, which featured sculptural outfits and accessories made from candy-colored rope.) Ultimately, Schneider received her BA in textiles, and has since exhibited across Europe at venues including Galerie Handwerk in Munich and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
—Olivia Horn
B. 1990, South Korea. Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea.
In “10:05,” her current solo show at Busan’s Gallery Playlist, Park Yunji revisits a theme that has occupied much of her practice: ephemerality.
In a series of contemplative new paintings, shadows of trees and plants are carefully cropped and soaked in muted pinks and placid blues, capturing the fuzzy essence of transient moments. Park applies watercolor and pigment to jangji—a thick Korean paper that readily absorbs color, allowing the artist to create layered depth. This effect is apparent in works such as Red Wind 1 (2024), where the shadow of a constellation of branches is rendered in a shade of pink so soft and beclouded that it borders on abstraction.
Park graduated from Ewha Womans University in Seoul with an MFA in oriental painting. She has exhibited widely in the South Korean capital at galleries including White Noise and The Sool Gallery, and in institutional presentations at the OCI Museum of Art and Seongbuk Young Art Space.
—Arun Kakar
