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. 1989, Kerman, Iran. Lives and works in London.
In vivid, sculptural fiber works, Iranian artist Hiva Alizadeh deploys synthetic hair to create striking contemporary articulations of tradition. The artist’s choice of material is a nod to hair’s cross-cultural significance as a symbol of personality, temporality, and experience. Meanwhile, his weaving technique mirrors the intricacies and patterns of Persian rugmaking.
Many of these works hang, stand, and protrude in various configurations as if sentient creatures—perhaps rainbow-colored incarnations of Cousin Itt. In “Bare in the Garden,” the artist’s recent solo show in London at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery’s Tower Bridge location, his works were presented both in clusters and as independent monuments. These configurations, according to the gallery, formed the gardens referenced in the title: places of sanctuary where the viewer can find solace, including by touching the works.
A self-taught artist, Alizadeh is also currently the subject of a dual show, “Resonances,” alongside Sophie Ullrich, at Amsterdam’s Enari Gallery. Last year, Alizadeh mounted a solo show at the Lajevardi Foundation in Tehran and was featured in group presentations at galleries including Milan’s The Flat – Massimo Carasi, London’s Haricot Gallery, and Italy’s Palazzo Monti. His work is held in collections including the Frederick R. Wiseman Foundation in Los Angeles and the Contemporary Art Museum Kerman in Iran.
—Arun Kakar
B. 1992, Lagos. Lives and works in Lagos and New York.
Comparing her practice to visual diary keeping, Nola Ayoola employs weaving, collage, and markmaking in layered mixed-media compositions that center her personal identity and experience, as well as shared histories. In some works, Ayoola honors her Nigerian heritage by employing traditional Yoruba block printing and dyeing techniques. Influenced by her synesthesia, Ayoola also delights in sensory contrasts, often using clashing color palettes and emphasizing texture.
In Ajé á wá o (2024), smooth cowrie shells appear to float above a lattice of interwoven paper and deconstructed bags. The bags, recognizable for their blue, red, and white tartan pattern and frequently used by marketgoers in West Africa, are colloquially referred to as “Ghana Must Go” bags. Named for the undocumented Ghanaian immigrants who packed their belongings in them when they were expelled from Nigeria in the 1980s, they have since become symbols of migration, cultural heritage, and memory. Such intricate works produce a potent representation of intersectional thinking by weaving together layers of material and meaning.
Originally a student of social policy and sociology, Ayoola went on to earn an associate’s degree in interior architecture at New York’s The New School in 2016. She has participated in group shows in New York at Cierra Britton Gallery and Hausen Art Gallery, and in Lagos at African Artists Foundation and Yenwa Gallery. Her works are currently featured in Cierra Britton Gallery’s group presentation in Black-Owned Galleries Now, Artsy’s showcase of Black gallerists and the artists they champion.
—Isabelle Sakelaris
B. 1963, Leamington, Canada. Lives and works in London.
Michele Fletcher’s vivid paintings overflow with natural abstractions. In her latest series, currently featured in a solo exhibition at White Cube in Hong Kong, the London-based artist envisions a world where plant life has overtaken humanity. Using ribbon-like, looping brushstrokes and layered hues, she creates canvases bordering on abstraction, but with hints of botanical subjects—unfurling petals, and tangled stems writhing in curving swooshes of oil paint. Mercury Rising(2024) radiates a velvet heat in rich reds and purples, while Winter’s Curve (2024) conjures darkening skies with pale pinks and grays. The broad, repetitive paint strokes are reflective of Fletcher’s physically demanding process, in which she works with wet-on-wet paint in long sessions.
“Aftertime,” Fletcher’s current solo show at White Cube (and her first in Hong Kong), is on view through March 15th. Her work was also recently featured in Kutlesa’s Art SG booth. Born in Canada, Fletcher studied at Goldsmiths and Chelsea College of Arts in London, earning her MA in fine art in 2006. In 2020, she won the John Moores Painting Prize. Her work is held in collections such as Soho House, the Isaac Newton Institute at Cambridge, and the Groucho Club in London.
—Josie Thaddeus-Johns
B. 1982, Hinsdale, Illinois. Lives and works in Northport, Michigan.
Living and working in rural Michigan, James Morse is embedded with his inspiration. “I have lived intimately with the landscape for the past 10 years, swimming in its waters, walking its fields, and climbing its hills,” he told Floorr. The artist’s richly colored oil paintings reflect these rolling, rural landscapes, which are often populated with figures engaged in winter sports, swinging axes, or simply lounging about.
Eschewing the use of photographs, Morse—a rural flâneur—prefers to immerse himself in his community, creating vivid snapshots through on-site studies. For instance, Lake Game (2024) pulls the viewers into a frostbitten terrain where hockey players carve across the ice against a stark, mountainous backdrop. This work was recently featured in Alzueta Gallery’s group show “The Remains of the Day.” Another typical work, On the Lake (2023), features a panoramic view of a frozen lake, with a composition reminiscent of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s The Hunters in the Snow (1565). Despite their frigid scenery, these works crackle with the energy of human connection.
Morse studied art at both Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, and Columbia College in Chicago. He has had previous solo exhibitions at Cob in London, Phillip Martin Gallery in Los Angeles, and Cook’s House in Traverse City, Michigan.
—Maxwell Rabb
B. 1986, Madison, Wisconsin. Lives and works in Hudson, New York.
Looking at an Ellen Siebers painting is like trying to see underwater, hoping for a flash of the familiar within the murky depths. In her atmospheric works, forms are always partially concealed, smudged at the edges or seen through small apertures within larger abstracted landscapes. The subject of Dreamer II (2024), on view in a current solo show at cadet capela in Paris, may have the instantly recognizable contours of a reclining odalisque. But unlike Manet’s famous rendition, this figure doesn’t meet the viewer’s gaze—as far as we can tell. Her eyes are barely legible through the haze.
Siebers has said that daily walks are an essential part of her practice. The influence of the landscape is evident in her paintings, which contain whispers of flora and fauna in their feathered, scrubbed-on brushstrokes. Rather than directly transcribing what she sees, though, the artist allows feeling to guide her. Her loose gestures poetically reference the way that observation and memory swirl together in our day-to-day consciousness.
“Long Light,” Siebers’s current solo show, is her first in Europe, and remains on view through March 1st. It follows a solo exhibition at Franklin Parrasch Gallery in New York last fall. The artist, who received her MFA from the University of Iowa, has also exhibited at The Approach in London and Harper’s in East Hampton, New York, among others.
—Olivia Horn
