In 2026, curators aren’t just responding to aesthetic trends – they’re shaping how art is seen, understood, and connected to the wider cultural moment. From community engagement to deeper thematic frameworks, what curators prioritize reveals not only what gets shown in galleries and museums, but what gets remembered. Below, we unpack what curators are prioritizing […]
Ranny Macdonald describes painting as a threshold experience, a place where something begins to take over. “I get a sort of rush from it,” he says, “to be on that threshold… it feels like something else is kind of taking over, you know what needs to be done and you’re listening.” In those moments, the
Cathleen Clarke has always been drawn to the spaces where memory begins to thin out. Not the sharp, documentary version of the past, but the gaps that form over time. The voids. The moments that cannot be fully retrieved. She is interested in what happens next, when imagination steps in to fill what is missing.
Born and raised in Berlin with Kurdish roots, Kara Su grew up far from the traditional art world. Her mother raised seven children on her own. Galleries, collectors, and studio culture were not part of her environment. Art school existed in primary education, but the idea of becoming a painter did not. In her twenties
For Logan Sylve, painting is a steadfast companion. “I feel like painting is my first love and the most reliable companion I have,” he says. In a world of unpredictability and disappointment, creativity stands above it all. Even when the act of making art can feel frustrating, the rewards are deeply sustaining, offering a sense
Mario Picardo approaches painting as a space of personal freedom. The studio is not a site of pressure or anxiety for him, but a place of pleasure and ease. Each day he arrives to work, he describes the act of painting as happiness itself. It is not something he worries about or negotiates with. It
Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, Hill Spriggins has been living and working in Brooklyn, New York for the past seven years. She identifies herself simply and decisively as a painter. While people often ask whether she draws, photographs, or works in other mediums, her answer is consistent. Painting is her focus, the only practice she
Brenda Zlamany has been painting for most of her life, and she speaks about it as a continuous, accumulating act rather than a series of isolated achievements. One painting leads to the next. Each body of work grows out of the previous one. What drives her is not competition with art history anymore, but a
In the studio, drawing and painting are the moments when Henry Ward feels most fully himself, even as he admits that the act of making art can feel heavy and unavoidable. He describes it as a compulsion that remains inseparable from how he understands himself and the world. If he could choose not to make
Art school teaches you technique, composition, and craft—it shows you how to make work. What it rarely teaches is how to talk about your work, build a consistent practice, or keep creating once the structure disappears. For many artists, graduation marks the beginning of a quieter, more difficult phase of their practice — one without
