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While gallery-hopping may be a part of your ideal weekend itinerary, thanks to Instagram, you don’t have to leave your house (couch, or bed) to discover artists that inspire you. The app has helped to give up-and-coming creators the exposure they deserve and it’s made it easier for you to find images that fill you with a sense of wonder.
Admittedly, with its 500 million daily users, Instagram is also quite the vacuum: If you don’t know precisely what you’re looking for, it can be hard to find it. It can take some time to discover the artists that most appeal to your taste, but whether you’re an all-out maximalist or minimalist, whether you prefer concrete concepts or more conceptual renderings, or whether you have a taste for vivid hues or earth tones, there’s something out there for you.
Once you start to follow a few artists that strike your fancy, the algorithm will do its magic and help you to discover even more. Consider this a source of endless inspiration.
Not sure where to get started? Follow these 13 artists and fill your feed with color.
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@emilyfiller
Toronto-based Emily Filler has a way with paper. Her mixed-media floral collages are mesmerizingly distinct, and through them all, her blend of colors and patterns feels invigorating. Her paintings also reflect tiny worlds of color.
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@willaheart
As a self-identified maximalist, Alyssa Jill Harris masterfully mixes ornate patterns into her animal-driven artworks. On her feed, you’ll find her work mixed in plenty of vintage photos that serve as her own inspiration (and make for additional eye candy for you).
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@tactilematter
Kenesha Sneed’s masterful command of color grants a soothing appeal to her paintings of both landscapes and people. Her work isn’t confined to the canvas, though: She also crafts in textiles and pottery.
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@_gabriella_sanchez
Adding elements of typography to her paintings, Gabriella Sanchez creates work that “centers around the tension of duality and explores how meaning is created and received through both text and imagery.”
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@andreasoosart
Based in Victoria, BC, Andrea Soos celebrates spontaneity and joy in her dynamically abstract work. In each painting, the finished result is far greater than the sum of its parts, as each tiny detail feels simultaneously deliberate and impulsive.
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@cequarles
Frequently exploring themes of ambiguity, Christina Quarles challenges figure and dimension in her vibrant paintings that practically leap off their canvases. “Fixed categories of identity can be used to marginalize but, paradoxically, can be used by the marginalized to gain visibility and political power,” she writes on her site. “This paradox is the central focus of my practice.”
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@b.d.graft
Yellow is king in the works of Amsterdam-based artist Brian de Graft. Works based in oil pastels and charcoal have a unique freehand style that feels especially fresh and always delightful.
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@minervagm
Cancun-based illustrator Minerva GM explores themes of nature and femininity in her color-driven work. Her balance of pastels, along with deeper primary colors, creates a distinctive color story.
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@honeiee
Deeply inspired by her love of history and informed by her identity as an Afro-Cuban American, Harmonia Rosales creates paintings that both challenge tradition and are informed by it. In 2017, her reimagination of Michelangelo’s “The Creation of Adam” went viral—and since then, her work has remained distinctly unique and inspiring.
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@analeovy_art
Featuring female-focused portraits, Mexico City–based Ana Leovy’s repertoire crafts a colorful world inspired by fashion and culture. Using gouache, acrylics, and watercolor, she emphasizes the painterly quality of her work.
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@tschabalalaself
“My work explores the emotional, physical and psychological impact of the Black female body as icon, and is primarily devoted to examining the intersectionality of race, gender, and sexualty [sic],” writes Harlem-born artist Tschabalala Self on her website. Using mixed media and a vivid palette, her paintings command attention and have a presence of their own.
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@hiba_schahbaz
Working with traditional Indo-Persian painting techniques, Hiba Schahbaz often uses black tea and watercolors in her self-portraiture. “I pursue the world of the beautiful in my work,” she writes on her website—and her paintings, which use the female form to push against censorship and challenge socio-political ideas, are a world of beauty in their own.
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@sullystring
Oklahoma-based artist Sarah Sullivan conveys her vibrant patterns across a number of mediums: textiles, paintings, and murals. Through them all, her geometrically based designs look playful and energetic—you can’t help but smile.
More visual inspiration:
Inside an Artist’s Bold, Rebellious Georgia Home
An Artist Threw a Dinner Party Inspired by Her Paintings
We’ve Fallen in Love With This San Francisco Artist’s Paper Tapestries