Meet These Breakout Artists

A Mexican textile, installation and street artist working with embroidery and vintage photographs, Villasana uses her country’s textile traditions to infuse new life into images by overlaying them with vivid handmade tapestries. Her work features female visionaries from history, pop culture and social causes prominently, while her threaded handiwork converts each two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional presence. Villasana’s rendering of Virginia Woolf brings to mind the writer’s words: “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” Villasana’s work honors them. For more, follow Villasana on Instagram.

It’s all in the mind. This Indian photographer’s images can appear mirage-like when affixed on leaves, or stand out in mixed-media work that incorporates needles, clay, crayons and a fake diamond. In other work she explores the idea of the self becoming a “sacred space” during turbulent times. She portrays the fragile terrain of interiority with strands of hair, rose petals, stones and a photograph of an eye, compelling the viewer to examine objects individually and within a broader context. For more, follow Raizada on Instagram.

Women’s bodies are political, and as a Black woman, this artist from Ivory Coast has claimed the politics of her hair to craft powerful sculptures. She is both the story and storyteller in her works made of her own hair, in sculptures that range from the playful — as in the bird perched upon her arm — to the courageous narration of the violation of her body. Ky has recently authored a book, “Love and Justice,” in which she chronicles her journey as an artist and activist. For more, follow Ky on Instagram.

Whether using a fallen carpet of pink rhododendron flowers to make spirals or combing the beach to create pebble mandalas, this British artist uses nature’s diverse gifts to develop stunning geometric patterns. Nature’s offerings are also his inspiration. His art captures the planet’s changing seasons and rhythms. In poet Mary Oliver’s words, if “attention is the beginning of devotion,” Brunt’s work comes from the pulsating place where attention and devotion meet. For more, follow Brunt on Instagram.

The henna gardens of this Pakistani-American artist sinuously migrate from palm to paper and fabric, as images of pomegranates and flowers come to life through natural dye and thread. The application of henna on a person’s body bestows upon them “the gift of new insight,” she told OZY. “Their hands and feet, their most sacred tools to navigate this earth, suddenly appear as living pieces of art which are carried in awe throughout the day.” Her own journey with henna began just three years ago; today her aspiration is for her work to reflect the centuries-old history of henna patterns, which have traveled around the world and played distinct roles in different cultures. She seeks to “recreate the art that adorned the bodies of the people before us.” For more, follow Trevathan on Instagram.

Stella Maria Baer’s paintings are vivid with the colors of the New Mexico desert — quite literally, as she creates pigments from the desert’s soil. A dotted swatch of color can evoke the concept of a dynamic, deconstructed desert: an exploration of what she describes as the “alchemy of dirt into pigment.” She has demonstrated the rich variation in pigment hues even when collected from the same location. And her silvery lunar meditations pose questions worth answering.

on The Carlos Watson Show!

A pink trumpet tree in full bloom in Bangalore’s popular Cubbon Park appears like a billowing cloud in embroidery artist Anuradha Bhaumick’s work. Repurposed from scraps of her mother’s old clothing, and with astonishingly precise needlepoint, Bhaumick conjures tiny, detailed universes in vibrant color. Now Bhaumick is taking her vision global. In a new project, Comfort Collages, she will create works from fabric gifted to her by artists and friends around the globe, all of them to portray scenes of happy solitude. Sometimes an individual’s joy is a collective gift. For more, follow Bhaumick on Instagram.

Her colored glass dioramas are intricate studies in narrative detail that pay homage to an historic American craft: glass sculpting. Cowan largely uses glass cullet sourced from flea markets, antique stores and scrap yards, whose junk comes from defunct factories. Cowan told OZY she is “mining the history of objects” and their original color, which she uses to “animate” her pieces. She says that, at times, certain people and animals become recurring characters in her work, which explore themes ranging from the divine feminine to finding symbolism in the mundane. For more, follow Cowan on Instagram.

Kirie, the Japanese art of paper cutting, dates back to the 7th century. Masayo Fukuda of Tokyo is among the leading contemporary artists reinvigorating the tradition, with her wildly intricate creations drawn from nature. An initial paper sketch can become a multi-limbed octopus or a swimming nautilus. Over the course of three decades practicing this craft, Fukuda has learned to use a scalpel to gradually cut and shape paper into vivid alternate realities. While a glimpse of the finished art is testimony enough, the videos Fukuda creates demonstrate that her process is a work of art, too. For more, follow Fukuda on Instagram.

The Newcastle, Australia-based visual artist’s sculptural embroidery maps the structures of nature’s diverse veining systems. Her marriage of intricate freehand embroidery and soluble materials creates brightly colored coral fans, flowers and leaves, sponges and shells, which compel observers to consider the patterns binding us to one another. For more, follow Woolnough on Instagram.

What artist, musician or writer would you like to see featured in OZY?

Share your thoughts with us at OzyCommunity@Ozy.com.