Kelly Akashi, 2016 CULTURED Young Artist
The Altadena-based artist’s far-reaching practice is currently on view in “Formations” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, and “Encounters” at the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle. She’ll also have works included in group shows at the Aldrich Contemporary, Moody Center for the Arts, and Cantor Arts Center next year.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2016?
I am learning the importance of writing alongside my visual practice. Alongside all the material and conceptual research I have continued to develop, I have begun writing in various formats that are more or less formal.
What advice would you give this year’s Young Artists?
Stay agile and aware of how culture shifts and reframes your artistic output.
Sam Moyer, 2016 CULTURED Young Artist
The Brooklyn-based artist is fluent in the mechanics of abstract painting, a proficiency that allows her to both examine and deconstruct the art form. She has a solo show at Blum in Los Angeles on view through Dec. 16 and is hard at work on two forthcoming solo exhibitions at Water Mill's Parrish Art Museum and Sean Kelly Galley in New York.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2016?
I would say it’s a constant evolution—it’s hard to time travel and remember where my head was in 2016, but I know a lot has happened and I have had to learn to move a little slower and be less reactive. Time is forever my biggest challenge; problem solving to maintain space in my practice for experimentation and failure is hard, but a priority.
What advice would you give this year’s Young Artists?
You never know what’s around the corner, just keep working through the highs and lows!
Sam McKinniss, 2017 CULTURED Young Artist
A celebrated painter of celebrities, McKinniss joined David Kordansky Gallery this fall, after his longtime gallery JTT closed. His latest paintings will be on view at the gallery’s booth during Frieze Los Angeles 2024.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2017?
Peace of mind is a necessary working condition and is available at cost.
What advice would you give this year’s Young Artists?
There's fentanyl in the drug supply. Be careful.
Ajay Kurian, 2017 CULTURED Young Artist
This past summer, the multimedia artist launched NewCrits, a global platform for virtual studio critiques that aims to democratize art education and mentorship outside of MFAs. Next year, Kurian will have solo presentations at DC’s Von Ammon Co and Düsseldorf’s Sies + Höke, along with his first institutional exhibition in LA at LAXART.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2017?
I was in a very angry place where I couldn't find a way to move forward without processing that aggression. Since then, I've realized that staying in that place is pretty untenable for my mental health and that in order to live critically but fully, I would have to find a different balance. This has shifted my practice in ways that were pretty unforeseeable. What remains consistent is the desire to see new worlds—how new ones come together and how old ones fall apart.
What advice would you give this year’s Young Artists?
Regardless of whatever gallery you're at, whatever opportunity you're given, you must never forget that you must always advocate for yourself. No one will do this better than you. This doesn't mean you have to do it by yourself; find your team and trust them, but always know that you need to be aware of the moving parts.
Raque Ford, 2018 CULTURED Young Artist
Over the past 12 months, Ford set the mood for partiers and art lovers alike with her signature dance floors installed at Chicago’s Good Weather, MoMA PS1, and BRIC in Brooklyn. Fresh off the heels of a solo show at Philadelphia’s Print Center, the artist is preparing a presentation at Kunstverein Gartenhaus next year.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2018?
Since being featured in CULTURED's list in 2018 so much has changed for me personally and in my practice. I don't know if I've learned one particular thing other than to be open to being pushed while also keeping boundaries.
What advice would you give this year’s Young Artists?
To be kind and patient with yourself and to see a good tarot reader when you feel lost.
Christina Quarles, 2018 CULTURED Young Artist
The Los Angeles-based painter and market star just closed two major solo shows at Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof and Hauser & Wirth’s Menorca outpost. Her exhibition at Pilar Corrias’s London space is on view through Dec. 16, and next year she has a summer solo show slated with Copenhagen’s GL Strand.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2018?
I have learned that progress, productivity, and success within an art practice necessitates failure, rest, distraction, and back-peddling. As a working artist, it is crucial to advocate for the priorities of an artistic practice that will inevitably come at odds with the demands of an art market.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
Break free from the scarcity mindset that permeates the art world and remember that the connective potential of art is best realized through generosity, openness, and vulnerability. Share information, make introductions, demand your worth, and have time for your community. Oh, and also hold back some of your best work for yourself every year.
Sarah Faux, 2019 CULTURED Young Artist
Faux’s sensual, polychrome practice was on view in a solo exhibition with Hales Gallery and a suite of group shows this past year. A 2022-23 Pollock-Krasner Foundation grantee, the painter will debut new works with Hales at Art Basel Miami Beach this December.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2019?
My practice has gotten more energetic and emotionally charged as I've scaled up my surfaces and ambitions in recent years. I've pushed myself to paint with more speed, reckless fervor and honesty, and I've been surprised by what comes out: raw contradictory feelings of desire and fear that only paintings can safely hold.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
Don't censor yourself!
Martine Gutierrez, 2019 CULTURED Young Artist
Riding on the wave of “ANTI-ICON: APOKALYPSIS,” a three-venue solo exhibition of new photographic works this summer, and a feature in Sebastian Silva’s dark comedy Rotting in the Sun, Gutierrez is preparing solo exhibitions at Seattle’s Henry Art Gallery and the Polygon in Vancouver next year.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2019?
It’s our authorship that breathes life into the dream, that then makes truth a reality. This is art’s magic trick, to create what you wish to see in the world as a hand hold to pull yourself forward. The older I get the more disassociated I’ve become, it's a fierce advantage when not exhaustingly bleak.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
The artist must remain the optimist—the Utopian optimist. You are the culture's last hope ;)
Michael Bailey-Gates, 2019 CULTURED Young Artist
A documenter of prismatic personhood, over the past few years the photographer has collaborated with fashion brands like AMI and Valentino, designed cover art for musicians like Hyd, captured stars like Sam Smith and Kim Petras, and published a book, A Glint in the Kindling.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2019?
I felt ashamed of my set-up before—working with duct-taped cameras—embarrassed about errors in my film, wanting perfection. I was thinking I could grow if I had better equipment, a bigger studio, more help, etc. But when I got those things it was like working in a sterile office—I felt like my work looked like someone else’s. The mistakes I considered errors were the spark in my work.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
Pray for just the right amount to go wrong.
Jonathan Lyndon Chase, 2020 CULTURED Young Artist
The Philadelphia-based multidisciplinary artist has a show at Artists Space up through Dec. 2 and a painting on view on the Whitney Museum’s sixth floor. They’re debuting a string of new works in a Stella Bottai and Gray Wielebinski-curated group show at Milan’s Gió Marconi gallery this winter.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2020?
At the age of 34, I have learned that I switch seasonally from being a morning person or night owl. I am a maximalist in many ways, however there is something specific I’m searching for. Cold mustard tastes better. I take more photos or things inside and outside of the studio.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
Having a small close-knit group of friends/ family is where it’s at! You don’t have to be at every party or social event, don’t pressure yourself. Prioritize rest and time to recharge your creative battery. Write more and don’t worry about it being “neat” or whatever. You’ll learn a lot through obsessively writing down things. What are the things? Start writing, and they’ll unveil themselves to you.
Alina Perez, 2020 CULTURED Young Artist
The Miami native’s work was shown in conversation with that of Arel Lisette in two shows, at Deli Gallery and Kishka Gallery, this past year. The artist has a solo presentation at Various Small Fires in Dallas through Dec. 23, and will have work at Deli Gallery’s Material Art Fair booth and her first international solo show at Rome’s ADA Gallery next spring.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2020?
I feel like each year that passes I learn more and more about drawing. At the same time, as I begin to understand how expansive the medium truly is, the more I realize how much more there is to discover. This excites me because it points to drawing’s limitless potential of what it can create, while the basic elements stay the same over time. I think now more than ever I am trying to really practice patience in the studio. I have found that moving more slowly allows the drawings an opportunity for them to figure themselves out on their own, rather than me trying to get them from point A to B. Letting marks sit for long periods of time and not trying to “fix” or erase things immediately has helped push my work into new and exciting directions.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
The most genuine advice I can give to anyone (including myself) is to believe in yourself, always.
Simphiwe Ndzube, 2020 CULTURED Young Artist
The Los Angeles- and Cape Town-based artist showed work in Blum’s Alison Gingeras-curated group show “Pictures Girls Make” this fall. His flamboyant and mystical painting practice is on view in his first solo presentation with Blum through Dec. 16.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list in 2020?
Since then I have learned to have a healthier relationship to work than the chaos inherent in survival mode. It’s OK to allow myself to go for a swim, walk with a friend, or take a mid-day nap. Those are very powerful strategies to access the divine inspiration and energy to keep making work.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
To keep their studio overheads low and focus on building a body of work for a solo show than work constantly leaving the studio for group shows.
Bony Ramirez, 2022 CULTURED Young Artist
The New Jersey-based, Dominican Republic-born artist worked in construction before turning to painting. Over the years, he has gradually incorporated sculpture into his cosmological practice, showcased this past year in solo exhibitions at Jeffrey Deitch and Sugar Hill Museum in New York and François Ghebaly in Los Angeles. Next up: a major institutional solo in the spring.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list last year?
The time since the CULTURED list last year has been truly life changing. I have grown a lot as a person and as an artist as well. A big breakthrough in my practice has definitely been dedicating more focus to my sculptural practice, giving my sculptures and ceramics a bigger platform in my body of work.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
To always be mindful of the conversations your work engages in, and to always make sure the vision of your collaborators aligns with your own.
Anna Weyant, 2022 CULTURED Young Artist
The New York-based celebutante has made waves in the art world with her larger-than-life portraits of young women that toe the line between provocation and pretend. Her latest series are on view at Gagosian in Paris through Dec. 22.
What have you learned about yourself and your practice since being featured in the Young Artists list last year?
I don’t necessarily feel that what I have learned is something I’m able to readily articulate. I like to believe (and hope!) that I am learning everyday and that somehow those things—whatever they may be—intrinsically find their way into my work.
What advice would you give to this year’s Young Artists?
I am very weary about giving advice and prefer to speak from my personal experiences. To that end, I try to remind myself to be present, keep an open mind and live without shame.
