The Most In-Demand Artists Who Aren’t Painters
From gallery shows to the homes of art collectors, painting is always popular in the art world. The medium has held sway among buyers for almost as long as it has existed. And this is borne out in the data: Paintings sell at a higher volume and a higher price than other mediums by far, with nine of the 10 most expensive works ever sold at auction being paintings; and of the 50 most expensive works sold under the hammer this year, only two are not paintings.
So what does the art market look like without paintings? Here, we take a look at Artsy data to explore the most popular and in-demand artists who aren’t primarily painters.
The most in-demand artists on Artsy who aren’t painters
When it comes to the artists whose works had the most inquirers on Artsy from January 2023 through July 2023, just nine of the top 100 artists were non-painters. The list of nine is as follows:
Much like we found in The Women Artists Market Report 2023—which surveyed gender disparity across the art market as a whole—the artists whose works are attracting the most inquirers are primarily white men, with only one woman artist making the list. This suggests that the art world still has a long way to go when it comes to promoting and spotlighting more works by female, non-Western, and BIPOC artists.
Of the list above, five are photographers, three are sculptors, and two are textile artists. All are established artists; Faig Ahmed, who was born in 1982, is the only ultra-contemporary artist (born after 1974) on the list. Ahmed—whose work was featured in Azerbaijan’s first pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2007—has experienced strong demand for his surrealistic textile works that incorporate traditional carpet weaving techniques.
Several artists on the above list have also had major career moments recently. Following her activism around the opioid crisis, Nan Goldin’s art reached new audiences with the 2022 release of All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, the Oscar-nominated documentary about her life and work. New representation with Gagosian, announced this past March, reflects this career milestone. British sculptor Anthony James also set a new record at auction last year for Great Rhombicosidodecahedron (2020), which sold for $302,400 at Sotheby’s in March 2022.
To help us understand the current moment in the art market for non-painters, we also pulled out artists who have experienced the largest percentage growth in inquirers on Artsy between January 2022–July 2022 and January 2023–July 2023. Of the top 100 artists with the most growth in inquirers on that list, 14 were not painters. That list is as follows:
This list has a greater proportion of women artists—four total—as well as a greater number of sculptors, with six inclusions. This is followed by three photographers, one textile artist, one mixed-media artist, and one installation artist.
The list contains a mix of established names such as Fan Ho and Olafur Eliasson alongside more emerging artists such as Alma Berrow (a sculptor).
Notably, ultra-contemporary sculptor Annie Morris displayed the highest percentage growth of these non-painters, with a 675% rise in inquirers year over year. This rise reflects the British artist’s recent ascent at auction, where her “Stack” sculptures—made using foam and sand spheres covered in vibrant pigment—have sold consistently for six-figure sums over the past 18 months. The artist’s current auction record was set in March 2022, when Stack 10, Copper Blue (2017) sold for £201,600 ($270,076).
Sculptor Lynda Benglis is another artist who achieved a new record at auction last year with the sale of Moretti (1988) for $1.1 million at Sotheby’s last May. Other names above, such as Albert Watson, Olafur Eliasson, and Gregory Crewsdon, have recently had work featured in major museum shows.
The artists who aren’t painters who gained the most followers on Artsy this year so far
When it came to the artists who gained the most followers on Artsy in 2023, eight of the top 100 were not painters. The list is as follows:
This list—made up of predominantly established artists—contains three photographers, a textile artist, a sculptor, a mixed-media artist, and an installation artist.
Several of the names above have had significant career moments over the past year. The South African photographer Zanele Muholi, who tops the list, had a major museum retrospective at the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris, and will have another survey show at Tate Modern in the U.K. next year.
Fellow photographer Wolfgang Tillmans also had a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York late last year; that show has traveled on to the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, and will open at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art this November. Tillmans will also open a new show with David Zwirner in New York this September.
Acclaimed textile artist Bisa Butler rounds out the list. Butler, who is known for dynamic, figurative quilts, made a splashy debut at auction earlier this year when her work Whirlwind (2016) sold for $69,850 at Phillips in May. The artist also had solo shows this year at the Gordon Parks Foundation and Jeffrey Deitch.
We also looked at the top 100 artists with the largest percentage growth in followers on the Artsy platform between January 2022–July 2022 and January 2023–July 2023. Of this list, just four non-painters were in the top 100. These were:
All but one name on this list—Seontae Hwang—are ultra-contemporary artists, who more frequently experience these sharp rises in interest. The young Ghanaian photographer Sarfo Emmanuel Annor, who tops the list with a 500% growth in followers year over year, has already had two solo shows this year with the digital gallery The Bridge.
Annor is followed by Welsh textile artist Anya Paintsil, who is represented by tastemaking New York gallery Hannah Traore and London gallery Ed Cross Fine Art; and has appeared at a number of fairs this year including NADA New York and EXPO Chicago. The inclusion of Korean glass artist Seontae Hwang and American ceramic artist Genesis Belanger show that there is also sustained interest in more sculptural and craft-influenced works.
