Alexander Lee Reagan is a contemporary artist located in Venice Beach, California; also known for his sustainable eco-fashion design work.
Describing his approach to creativity as “controlled chaos”, this artist’s work highlights a huge variety of textures, materials and media. Reagan’s intent is always to blur the lines between commercial and fine art as he represents his views on society in a world that’s constantly changing.
This artist’s large-scale mixed media works incorporate media such as spray paint, acrylic paint, plaster, cement, steel and printed media; driven by an impulsive vision that’s inspired by millennial culture.
Andy Warhol was an American artist and filmmaker, best known for being a leading figure and exponent of the Pop Art movement of the 1960s.
Warhol started painting in the late 1950s and rose to fame and sudden notoriety in 1962 when he exhibited his paintings of Campbell’s soup cans, Coca-Cola bottles, wooden replicas of Brillo soap pad boxes and his Marilyn Monroe diptych.
The artist’s work was an exploration of the relationships between art, advertising and celebrity culture and he created his artworks in a variety of media such as painting, silkscreen printings, photography, film and sculpture.
Leaning into silkscreen printing with a large amount of his work, the artist used this medium to express the supposed emptiness of materialism and celebrity culture through his repeated images of icons.
Warhol’s New York Studio, called The Factory, became a hotspot for distinguished and high-profile individuals, Bohemian street people, Hollywood celebrities and wealthy patrons.
In 2022, Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964) sold for $195 million, which at the time is the most expensive work of art sold at auction by an American artist.
Bjorn Persson is a contemporary artist who has gained international renown for his iconic wildlife photography and has been exhibited in various galleries, museums and publications around the world.
This fine art photographer’s artwork is a clear reflection of his passion and devotion to the wildlife of this planet, using his medium as an art form in its own right, not just as wildlife documentary photography.
Persson’s artworks are cinematic and emotionally charged and he always aims to capture his subjects in all their majesty, as highly conscious, dignified, sentient beings of beauty. The artist is inspired by his connection to animals which he views as both emotional and spiritual.
Chloe McCarrick is a contemporary artist whose work is regularly exhibited internationally.
Using a combination of photography, mixed-media and printmaking techniques, McCarrick specialises in cyanotype art and often incorporates gold leaf into her artworks.
With her Mixed-Media style, the artist works hard to develop and create innovative methods of reworking photographic images and uses the results to capture an essence of storytelling that captures the imagination of the viewer.
McCarrick’s work is an exploration of the infinite possibilities and variations of image production, using modern printmaking techniques with the goal of encouraging the viewer to form an emotional connection with her art.
Christian Gaillard was an award-winning French artist known for his portraits of bullfighters viewed from behind, posed in the “relaxed posture of beast-taming gladiators”.
He was the first non-Spanish artist to be awarded the first prize in the Real Maestranza de Caballeria de Sevilla, and his winning painting became part of the Maestranza’s collection.
The figurative style that Gaillard employed throughout his artworks was inspired mostly by Spanish painters such as Velasquez, Goya, and members of the Mexican Baroque. The artist’s process as a painter was informed by photography and video, which were mediums he also worked with.
In 2002, Gaillard donated his painting Profile Of Courage; a tribute to the firefighters who lost their lives in the 9/11 attacks to the Paris Fire Brigade which was, in turn, donated to its sister institution, the New York City Fire Department. Printed reproductions of this painting were also sold to raise funds for New York City firefighters.
Claude Monet was a French artist most notable for being the founder of impressionist painting and is viewed as a major precursor to Modernism.
Monet had a long and successful career painting nature as he perceived it and becoming the most consistent practitioner of the Impressionist ideology.
The artist’s process was mostly applied to painting en plein air (outdoors) and capturing the landscape; one of his ambitions was to document the French countryside which led the artist to depict the same scenes numerous times in order to capture the effects of light changing with the seasons.
Monet was exhibited regularly throughout his lifetime and his fame and popularity rose massively in the second half of the 20th century when he became renowned as one of the world’s most famous painters.
Daniela Raytchev is a contemporary artist whose work has found support from many high-profile individuals and has supported numerous charities.
Raytchev uses her art as a means of self-expression, to address prominent issues, express her ideologies and support causes that resonate with her.
Working in an Abstract Figurative style, this artist’s process often transcends simply painting on canvas as she often uses her own body for gestural mark-making in order to give her artwork the dynamic movement they’re renowned for.
She often works with mixed media including charcoal, inks, collage and material construction.
Raytchev’s work gets to the point and questions the position of women within society, actively promoting the acceptance and empowerment of victims of discrimination in a push for equality.
Deborah Azzopardi is a contemporary artist whose career began as a licensee to The Walt Disney Company, before reproductions of her works being sold widely through IKEA.
In 2014, Azzopardi had her first solo UK exhibition and shifted her focus to the fine art industry, gaining momentum at a fast rate.
The artist’s approach to the Pop Art style has resulted in a distinctive, playful body of work that is created solely to make her happy and not centred around a philosophical mission. She creates works that play with the joy of everyday life in colourful, honest expressions of embracing the quality that make us human.
Edward Hopper was an American artist widely accredited as the most important realist painter of 20th century America.
Hopper’s vision of reality, however, was selective and reflected his temperament as he depicted isolated figures, empty cityscapes and landscapes; demonstrating that realism doesn’t necessarily mean an exact representation, but rather an interpretive rendering.
After encountering it in Paris, Hopper was strongly influenced by the Impressionist movement, attracted to the light and colour palettes, as well as the quick brush strokes.
Hopper’s style became easily identifiable and distinctive, his landscapes and empty rooms had a transitory effect on viewers which became recognised throughout the art world.
Edward Hopper never lacked popular appeal in his lifetime and still holds the status as one of the two most prominent figures in early 20th century American art.
