5 Artists on Our Radar in April 2024

“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.

Dabin Ahn

B. 1988, Seoul. Lives and works in Chicago.

Dabin Ahn is attuned to the allure of objects. His paintings nod to the way we’re drawn to the luster of glazed porcelain or the glint of a hood ornament like moths to a flame—to borrow from the title of one work in “Silent Whisper,” the artist’s current solo show at 1969 Gallery in New York. In his glowing, delicately blended paintings, Ahn captures that magnetism, replicating the glossy flatness of product photography. But sometimes, Ahn’s objects start to break down, as if refusing to hold the desires projected onto them: Ceramics chip and crack, allowing their contents to spill out; decorative birds on vases fly away; candles are snuffed out.

These works are, themselves, alluring objects. Even as Ahn creates the smoothest of painted surfaces—often using makeup brushes to blend out seamless gradients—he makes works that exist in space. Recently, he’s taken to painting the oft-neglected sides of his canvases, a gesture that bends the picture plane into three dimensions.

“Silent Whisper,” open through April 20th, is Ahn’s first New York solo show. The artist, who earned his BFA and MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, also recently had a solo exhibition, “Staged,” at OCHI in Los Angeles.

—Olivia Horn

Jess Allen

B. 1966, Dorset, England. Lives and works in Cornwall, England.

Through quiet, luminous domestic scenes culled from her own experience, Jess Allen evokes universal emotions like longing and contentment. In the passing of time (2023)—on view in the artist’s solo show “This Is Now” at Unit in London through April 21st—she depicts herself reclining on a green couch, face turned away from the viewer as she “reads” a book with blank pages. In Allen’s work, doctored details—like those blank pages, or allusions to previous paintings—reveal her works to be composites. These images fold memory and imagination into photographic source material, nodding to the slippery nature of time.

Like memories, shadows are intangible records of a place and time, and Allen uses them to great effect—often, to suggest a subject outside of the frame. In The Secret (2023), Allen renders two figures in an embrace. One gazes beyond the picture plane toward an implied third figure, whose presence is indicated by a looming shadow. As in many of Allen’s works, this shadow could be the viewer themself. By collapsing the distance between subject and spectator, the artist creates opportunities for connection.

Allen studied art at Camberwell College of Arts and Falmouth School of Art. In addition to her current show at Unit, she will participate in a group exhibition at Taymour Grahne Projects this month. Other recent solo exhibitions have been held at Scroll Gallery in New York and Blue Shop Gallery in London.

—Isabelle Sakelaris

Caro Deschênes

B. 1993, Montreal. Lives and works in Montreal.

Like a Rorschach test, Caro Deschênes’s ambiguous oil paintings beckon myriad interpretations. The art historical influences of Dutch still lifes, particularly vanitas paintings, are perhaps most immediately felt, yet gently give way to color palettes that evoke rugged landscapes, celestial heavens, or sinewy tangles of flesh.

Deschênes recently made their solo debut in New York with “Lengthy Fall” at Jack Barrett. This body of work delves into moments “natal and fatal” through a series of pulsating canvases that channel the tactile qualities of fabric—draped, folded, and sagging. In The Womb (2024), fiery orange brushstrokes form an embryonic swirl, swelling with promise and preciousness. This is juxtaposed with Female Carcass (2024), which portrays the opposite side of the circle of life. Yet, even in death, there is a sense of hope, as nature’s cycle ensures that the end of one life nourishes another. Here, Deschênes taps into a visual language that leans toward abstraction, inviting viewers to contemplate the transcendence of life and death beyond the purely anatomical.

Deschênes holds a BFA in painting and drawing from Montreal’s Concordia University, and has previously exhibited with Afternoon Projects in Vancouver and McBride Contemporain in Montreal. Next month, the artist will be featured in Jack Barrett’s presentation at NADA New York.

—Jordan Huelskamp

Natasza Niedziółka

B. 1978, Międzychód, Poland. Lives and works in Berlin.

Abstract textiles might be having a moment right now, but Natasza Niedziółka has long been working in the medium, hand-stitching irregular, methodical patterns of color into linen, cotton, and silk. In her first solo show at Sean Kelly Gallery in New York, on view through May 4th, she presents new works from her ongoing series of canvases adorned with minimalist color gradients in thread and crayon: meditative, slightly wonky sewn-on geometries that contrast with the tight, machine-produced weave of the canvases she uses.

The artist’s newest series, “Protest Songs,” connects needlework to another folk tradition. Works from the series—also on view at Sean Kelly—monumentalize music associated with political resistance by rendering words from Ukrainian, Polish, and English songs in looping, repetitive embroidery.

Niedziółka, who is represented by Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, received a grant from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation in 2020, and was an artist in residence at the Gyeongju Art Centre in South Korea in 2018.

—Josie Thaddeus-Johns

Araba Opoku

B. 1998, Accra. Lives and works in Accra.

With both repeating, textile-like patterns and free-flowing forms, Araba Opoku’s large-scale abstractions hint at infinite possibilities and untold stories. Finding beauty in her surroundings, the artist begins her practice with images and objects from everyday life—like streets and bottles—and transforms them using loose grid lines and contours. Two of her paintings are included in a group exhibition, “Where Dreams Are Born and Peace Restored,” on view at Bwo Art Gallery in Douala, Cameroon, through April 20th.

Opoku teases layers of meaning out of her medium, using the fluidity of paint as a vehicle to explore the recurring theme of water. In On A Voyage Into Blue’s Euporie (2022), for example, Opoku applies aqueous layers of blue and green. Faded vertical lines of acrylic paint streak the canvas, mirroring the gentle trickle of water. The composition channels age-old rituals of water collection and conservation, offering a glimpse into the daily lives of communities in Opoku’s home of Accra.