Data Spotlight: L.A. Artists Trending Now

Los Angeles Art Week is upon us. Frieze L.A. and Felix Art Fair arrive at a time of palpable excitement around the City of Angels, which continues to develop as a number of notable galleries, from David Zwirner to Lisson Gallery, have announced new L.A. outposts. A growing community of young dealers, spaces, and collectors have coalesced around a nexus of exciting contemporary artists, particularly those in the ultra-contemporary bracket who live and work in the city.

It’s these artists, born in or after 1975, that we’re focusing on in the chart above. Last year was a banner year for the ultra-contemporary category, which saw a number of emerging artists set records at auction, and gain significant traction in primary markets.

Here, we focus on the L.A.-based ultra-contemporary artists who saw the largest month-over-month growth in inquirers (individual users who made one or more inquiries) on Artsy in the period between January 9th and February 6th, 2023. Notably, several of these artists were featured in the highly anticipated inaugural edition of Art SG in mid-January.

This group of artists represents the breadth and strength of the city’s emerging and mid-career talent today.

Molly Greene tops the list with inquiries up by 343%. Greene recently enjoyed a notable appearance at January’s Art SG, where she had a solo booth with Galerie Julien Cadet—her first solo presentation in Asia. That followed her hotly tipped solo show at trendy Tribeca space Kapp Kapp in late 2022. The painter is one of a number of contemporary artists working in fresh, Surrealist-adjacent styles that have captured the attention of collectors in recent years.

Hilary Pecis, second on the list with a 320% jump in inquirers, continues to see her profile rise since emerging as a breakout name in 2021 at New York’s spring auctions. Pecis’s current auction record of $1.26 million (£942,500) was set last March at Sotheby’s for Fish and Bird (2018); four of the artist’s top five auction records were set in 2022. Pecis held a solo show with Rachel Uffner Gallery in spring 2022 and will open her first solo show with David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles this March.

Alejandro Cardenas rounds out the top three with a 300% rise in inquiries. It’s been a busy winter for the Chilean artist, who kicked off 2023 with a lauded London solo show at Almine Rech; his works were also exhibited with the gallery at Art SG in January and at Art Basel in Miami Beach in December.

Next is Andy Dixon, who has seen inquiries rise by 250%. The Canadian—renowned for his tongue-in-cheek riffs on Renaissance and Flemish styles—featured most recently at Over The Influence’s booth at Art SG. The gallery, which has a branch in L.A., featured the painter in seven of its fair booths in 2022, from Taipei Dangdai to Intersect Palm Springs, as well as in a solo exhibition titled “My Patrons’ Homes” in Paris this past fall.

Painter Jesse Mockrin, who transforms Old Master subjects into striking contemporary compositions, is fifth on the list with a 175% rise in inquiries. Mockrin gained representation with New York gallery James Cohan in late 2022 and has long been on the roster of L.A.’s formidable Night Gallery, where she held a well-received solo show, “Reliquary,” last summer. Mockrin is followed by another Night Gallery artist, neo–Abstract Expressionist painter Andrea May Breiling, whose inquiries rose by 167% and also shows with Almine Rech.

The final four names on this list are perhaps its least surprising inclusions.

Devin Troy Strother, whose inquiries rose 133%, started 2023 with a group show at Ruttkowski;68 in New York, and ended 2022 with a total of four group shows and two solo exhibitions. Awol Erizku, whose inquiries rose by 75%, had a major 2022, after a blockbuster show at Gagosian in New York and is featured in a solo show at Ben Brown Fine Arts in London.