5 Artists on Our Radar in March 2021

“Artists on Our Radar” is a monthly series produced collaboratively by Artsy’s Editorial and Curatorial teams. Utilizing our art expertise and access to Artsy data, each month, we highlight five artists who have our attention. To make our selections, we’ve determined which artists made an impact this past month through new gallery representation, exhibitions, auctions, art fairs, or fresh works on Artsy.

Charline Tyberghein

B. 1993, Belgium. Lives and works in Antwerp.

Charline Tyberghein’s spellbinding paintings combine the visual illusions of Op art with the clever wit of contemporary figurative painting. A master of trompe l’oeil, or tricking the eye, the Belgian artist presents everyday objects, patterns, and surfaces warping into one another, mixing together form and function with a charming wink towards the viewer. Her work is currently featured in a solo show at Castor, London, titled “many drops make a puddle,” through May 1st, 2021.

In the world of Tyberghein, a curtain of metal chains will twist and bend to form a smoking face, a dripping jug will emerge from a brick wall, and a small umbrella will faintly appear atop a lavender shirt. Like the feeling of spotting the shape of an animal floating in the clouds, Tyberghein’s paintings boast a sense of visual magic—but the artist keeps the meaning behind these symbols close to her chest. “I want to leave it open for interpretation,” she has said. “I want people to project their own messy lives on my paintings.”

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp in 2018, Tyberghein is quickly gaining art world momentum. The M HKA, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp recently bought three of her works, and she’ll be featured in group shows at LLS Paleis in Antwerp and The Hole in New York later this year. Collectors who follow Tyberghein on Artsy also follow many of today’s in-demand emerging artists, such as Bendt Eyckermans, Laurens Legiers, Robin F. Williams, Julie Curtiss, Alex Gardner, and Nicolas Party.

—Sarah Gottesman

Hiejin Yoo

B. 1987, Münster, Germany. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

German-born Korean artist Hiejin Yoo is swiftly gaining renown among collectors. Her recent solo exhibition at Half Gallery in New York, “Where I Want To Be,” featured beautifully rendered oil paintings, portraying intimate scenes from everyday life. Her works were also featured in a two-person show at Half Gallery in Los Angeles, alongside works by Daniel Heidkamp. Yoo is known for these large-scale, semi-figurative paintings that capture fragments of past memories.

A graduate of UCLA’s MFA program, Yoo is now based in Los Angeles. There, she finds beauty in the mundane, turning observations of the world around her into candid, painted narratives. She grants her subjects anonymity, concentrating only on specific details from her personal life. Her works are introspective, acting as a visual journal. “I strive to make each of my paintings a reflection of my perception of the moment,” Yoo said in an interview with It’s Nice That.

Through her compelling use of vivid color and layered mark-making, Yoo channels her emotions and playful undertones into the works. Her sweeping brushstrokes and intricate details echo the mercurial nature of human memory, while her intentional use of cropping creates fragmented scenes that transcend reality. Her recollections appear on the canvas like a half-remembered dream.

Yoo’s works have been collected by Beth Rudin DeWoody and the Hort family, as well as the High Museum of Art. She has been showing with Half Gallery since 2018, and in 2020, her works were featured in group shows at Woaw Gallery, Ramp Gallery, Blum & Poe, The Pit LA, Anna Zorina Gallery, and Nino Mier Gallery. In 2021, her works will be featured in group exhibitions at Almine Rech in Brussels and Kunstraum Potsdam in Berlin.

—Adeola Gay

Sheida Soleimani

B. 1990, Indianapolis, Indiana. Lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.

The daughter of politically engaged Iranian refugees, Sheida Soleimani creates works that address world events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic and violence against women, by examining power structures through a feminist lens. In an interview with the Britsh Journal of Photography, Soleimani remarked, “I consider my work a feminist practice, because it’s associated with the so-called female practices of cutting, making, and even care-taking.”

Whether using found material culled from Google Images or original photographs staged in her studio, Soleimani frequently lets a part stand for a whole. Like an enjambed line in a poem, the fragmented images in Soleimani’s compositions propel the eye across the picture plane and offer multiple avenues for interpretation, inviting the viewer to make connections between the disparate images in her works. This method also encourages the viewer to think critically about what’s being left out and why. In a world with an endless supply of available information, Soleimani’s works empower the viewer to interrogate the media we consume—artistic or otherwise—rather than lending it our implicit trust.

In addition, Soleimani’s use of bright colors and textured backgrounds draw the viewer into the conversation and ask us to spend time there. By suggesting rather than spelling out the violence she so often takes up, Soleimani maintains the privacy and agency of her subjects instead of probing into their pain. The care she takes with respect to her figures, coupled with the visually enticing form of her works, makes for a compelling environment for inquiry into the complicated issues she depicts.

Soleimani graduated from the Cranbrook Academy of Art’s MFA program in 2015. In 2020, she held solo exhibitions at Denny Dimin Gallery in New York and Harlan Levey Projects in Brussels; she is also represented by Edel Assanti in London. In 2021, she will have solo shows at Providence College in Rhode Island and the Castello San Basilio in Basilicata, Italy.

—Isabelle Sakelaris

Penda Diakité

B. 1992, Portland, Orgeon. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Los Angeles–based artist Penda Diakité creates mixed-media collages, films, and a line of wearable art, yet all of her work circles back to her identity as a Malian American woman who grew up between West Africa and the United States.

While splitting her childhood between Mali and Portland, Oregon, Diakité felt compelled from a very early age to explore and express the duality of her experiences through creativity. She learned the traditional Malian technique of bogolan (mud-cloth) painting at age four, and published a children’s book with Scholastic at age 10. Diakité went on to study film and video at CalArts, and there she began to develop her singular mixed-media works.

Diakité, who shows with the L.A. gallery Band of Vices, is known for her vibrant figurative works that portray female figures through collage and painting, reflecting her own experiences as a multiracial woman. Through her works, she examines and conveys Black feminine identity, and considers what it means to visualize a person’s soul and their experiences. “My artwork is full of concepts that shape the individuality of black people today,” Diakité writes in her artist statement, “past and present stereotypes in cultures, and historical African tradition and how it co-exists among popular media’s portrayal of African descent people throughout the world.”

In 2018, Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys awarded Diakité the Dean Collection 20 St(art)ups grant, and her work has been featured at various galleries across the United States. She is also one of 19 esteemed artists featured in ArtLeadHER Foundation’s 2021 online group exhibition “​Truth About Me,​” which launches on Artsy on March 8th, International Women’s Day.

—Casey Lesser

Jasmine Little

B. 1984, Virginia. Lives and works in Alamosa, Colorado.

Though she deftly jumps between painting and ceramics, Jasmine Little is increasingly known for her sculptural vessels—white and terracotta-colored cylinders, sometimes over five feet tall, covered with intricate carvings, like vegetal patterns and slender mythological figures.

These ceramic works are currently featured in a group show, “Vessels,” at Nina Johnson in Miami, and were recently the focus of a 2021 solo show, “Sphinx Riddle,” at Tif Sigfrids in Comer, Georgia. They were also part of a two-person exhibition with Thornton Dial at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Aspen in 2020. Little also shows with Night Gallery in Los Angeles, where she had a solo show, “Retrograde,” in 2019.