27 Inspiring Artists We're Obsessed With on Instagram
Artists are creating their own success, and not just through the traditional route of commercial galleries and art publications. Self-promotion means building a new type of fan base. And Instagram is full of incredible artists who use the social media site to offer insights into their creative worlds.
Scrolling through the app is a great way to discover artists you haven't heard of, find inspiration, and shop for new pieces for your home. You can easily save items and start forming a moodboard or wishlist for the pieces you love. It's amazing what a piece of art can do to a space in bringing it to life and injecting some personality.
If you're looking to freshen up your feed or you're in search of new artworks to adorn your space with, consider following these 17 inspiring artists on Instagram.
27 Inspiring Artists to Follow on Instagram
1. Alexandria J park: @alexandriapark_
Alexandria’s Instagram gives an insight into her dreamy world, filled with paintings and stylish interiors. Her art delivers everything from surrealist viewpoints of European beach scenes to simple-but-abstract depictions of faces. Everything she created is rendered in soft, muted shades with bright, punchy accents of colour.
2. Mafalda Vasconcelos @mmvce
Mozambique-born, Melbourne-based artist Mafalda Vasconcelos creates colour-drenched portraits that celebrate the feminine spirit. In an exciting collaboration with Bed Threads, Mafalda has created four exclusive artworks to help enliven your home.
3. Claudia Miranda @claudiamiranda____
Sydney-based artist Claudia Miranda's one-line portraits have captured the imaginations of collectors and curators from here to the US and beyond. Her exclusive Bed Threads collection of one-line black and white drawings will become a cherished piece in your home, no matter which room you choose to display it in.
4. Caroline Walls @carolinewallsart
Caroline works across a number of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture and print-making, and has garnered widespread acclaim for her minimal, elevated and understated suggestions of the female form. Her work is curvaceous and organic featuring warm, muted tones.
5. Ashleigh Holmes @ashholmesart
Known for her large-scale acrylic paintings, the Northern Beaches based talent has garnered a following thanks to her layered, abstract works that feel at once new and familiar. With layered neutrals, < a href="https://bedthreads.com.au/blogs/journal/ashleigh-holmes-home-tour-interview" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Holmes' work nods to nature, creating a sense of calm into any space they're styled into.
6. Emma Currie @emmacurrie
In her paintings, contemporary artist Emma Currie pays homage to the beauty and strength of the female form. Using vibrant, contrasting colour palettes (think soft creamy apricots and muted blue hues), Emma’s work combines fluid curves with rigid lines to convey the complexities of her forever muse.
7. Rina Freiberg @rinafreiberg
Rina Freiberg’s colourful paintings feature wild expressionist faces and vibrant abstracts that are a translation of emotion and a playful disassembling of human interaction. Bold brushwork, hard lines, and quirky etchings star in both her drawing and painting work.
8. Jody Rosen @jodyrosen
Jody Rosen's style is embedded with personal memory, optimism, and an enduring love of travel. She employs a considered use of mixed media and intuitive painting techniques to create detailed works that predominantly feature images of landscapes. The beauty of jody's artworks lies not only in their meaning, but how seamlessly they will sit in any style of home while also making a lovely statement.
9. Lauren Freestone @freestone_art
Based in Newcastle, Lauren Freestone always considered art as a hobby and a way to connect with her dad - celebrated artist Lee Freestone. She was selling her paintings to friends and family but became more serious about it when a Sydney gallery asked to house some of her works.
"I have always been a creative person," she previously told Bed Threads Journal. "I grew up watching my dad paint and exhibit his work. My grandfather made and sold Yidaki and boomerangs at the markets so I guess it has always been a part of me."
10. Heather Day: @heatherday
Scrolling through Heather’s Instagram akin to swimming through the ocean on a beautiful day. Abstract forms in blues and greens cover her sizeable canvases—everything feels delightful and fresh. Her feed gives unrestricted access to her studio and details her collaborations with companies like Camelbak water bottles, Google, and Airbnb.
11. Nadia Hernández: @nando_nandez
Nadia is a Venezuelan artist, based in Sydney. You may recognise her fun geometric artworks on the Sydney NYE 2018 banners. Her colourful artworks have featured in collaborations with brands like Camp Cove Swim and Corona. She relates a diaspora experience into her works, bringing you closer to her culture.
12. Kit Agar: @kitagar
Kit’s feed is a carefully curated homage to line art. Her Instagram celebrates her processes and beautiful artworks, allowing you to see the "faces" she creates in a completely different light. She often reposts her followers, showcasing how they've repurposed her art to create makeup looks and nail art.
13. Quentin Monge: @mongequentin
Quentin's Instagram is a vision of colour and minimalist, pop art forms. His work depicts beachy holiday vibes and can cheer up any grey day. If his work looks familiar, it's probably because he’s made posters for Courtney Barnett and designed bottles for Grey Goose.
14. Jaimee Paul: @jaimeepaul
Jaimee is an incredible artist who paints realist impressions of animals she loves. Her motivation for paintings comes from her love of the planet, and her aims to save it through activism-artworks. She brings new context to the animals we know, showing them through her eyes.
15. Bobby Clark: @bobbyclark____
No art lover’s Instagram feed is complete without Bobby Clark. A beloved geometric, minimalist artist, her artwork appears in the background for many creatives’ homes. Make sure to watch her process videos, they will amaze you.
16. Cungelella Art @cungelella_art
If you're looking for truly unique and meaningful art, it's worth turning your attention to the work's of Australia's First Nation's people. Sisters Glenda, Jaunita, Dale and Cheryl create contemporary Indigenous Australian art that conveys the stories of their Kalkatungu homelands. Their vibrant artworks draw inspiration from the ancient rock faces, red dirt and spinifex covered hills, colours of the sky, and beautiful old rustic gum trees.
17. Jai Vasicek @jaivasicek
Byron-based Jai has gained a cult following with his highly expressive figures that he delicately paints by hand. He's got an impressive back catalogue as well as limited edition prints in his loose, signature style.
18. Kayleigh Heydon @kayleigh_heydon
If you’re a fan of bold colour combos and unconventional shapes, prepare to devour the work of UK-born, Melbourne-based multidisciplinary artist Kayleigh Heydon. After moving to Australia five years ago, Kayleigh began experimenting with painting, and what was at first a form of creative output soon became her primary practice—and we’re all the better for it.
19. Sylvie Kettle @kettlepaints
Emerging artist Sylvie Kettle's modern works merge the feminine form and Australian landscape with bold mark making and dreamy colour work. Driven by authenticity, she seeks to walk the line between spontaneity and informed mark-making and her alluring paintings will add a dose of magic to your feed.
20. Xander Holliday @xanderholliday
Bold, graphic, and shapely, multi-disciplinary artist Xander Holliday's artworks bring a playful pop of colour to the home's with which they hang. Those who are a fan of Mattise will swoon over these works which are either digitally produced or created via traditional painting methods. Xander also shares adorable photos of his dachshunds which will brighten up your feed even more.
21. Jaz Meier @harleyandj
Graphic designer Jaz Meier's (Harley & J) playful and much-loved creations are inspired by the natural world, the female form, and a combination of '60s and '70s psychedelic music posters. Her main line of work is poster design, album covers, and textiles designs, and her IG account is beautifully nostalgic. Her recent print collaboration with Bed Threads was inspired by muses both feminine and floral, with each print featuring a zodiac flower chosen to represent each star sign.
22. Em McLeod @em.mcleod
Each of Em's beautifully curvaceous acrylic artworks is inspired by the female form and will be loved by anyone with an affinity for neutrals. "My greatest desire through my artwork is to encourage others to deeply nurture and connect to their truest self," she shares with Bed Threads Journal.
23. Brigitte Grant @bg.studio__
If you'd like to see some Euro magic on your feed, Brigitte Grant's whimsical artworks will give you just that. Boasting a distinct abstract style, her most popular pieces channel dreamy European summer vibes and are sure to inject some joy to your feed.
24. Isabelle Vandeplassche @isabellevandeplassche
Isabelle Vandeplassche is an illustrator and designer living by the sea in Ericeira, Portugal. Her dreamy water colours illustrate images of summer landscapes, infinite beaches, and lush jungles. These tropical artworks are designed to remind you of dreams, the kind of dreams you are sad to have woken up from.
25. Bec Smith @b.ecsmith
Bec Smith uses her training in graphic design to create geometric paintings that have a distinct Bauhaus look to them. These contemporary paintings are realisations of actual and idealised situations about the dynamics of people translated into static, photograph-like frames and will add a uniquely graphic touch to a home.
26. Gabrielle Penfold @gabriellepenfold
Sydney-based artist Gabrielle Penfold's artworks have become increasingly popular over the last couple of years. Her travels are the inspiration behind her contemporary works which oscillate between still life and landscapes and depict images of beaches and seafood.
27. Madeline Jovicic @madeline_jovicic
Madeline Jovicic is an artist and creative based in Sydney. Inspired by food, travel, and the golden-tinted viewpoint that is La Dolce Vita, Jovicic’s artworks will transport you to a sun-drenched European holiday. Her playful and whimsical painting style references street food, sardines, and gelato stands.
Enjoyed this? Here are 11 Inspiring First Nations Artists to Follow on Instagram
