Art for When You Don't Need to Look Twice
On the motifs, marks, and obsessions that make an artist's work unmistakable
One of the first things I look for when I’m considering an artist is whether they have a strong visual language: you know it’s their work as soon as you see it. That instant moment of recognition when you walk into a room and, without reading a single label, you know exactly whose hand made that work. It’s what separates artists who are technically skilled from artists who are unmistakable. It’s in the recurring subjects, the specific way they handle a mark, the things an artist simply cannot stop making.
Last summer I dedicated a full newsletter to one of the clearest examples of a strong visual language: Art for If You Actually Don’t Own an Emma Kohlmann Yet. Emma is the kind of artist where even a small work on paper is instantly, irrefutably hers. I take most of my Zoom calls in front of a large Emma Kohlmann work on paper in my collection, and it is hands down the most recognized and the most inquired about artwork during my calls.
This week’s edit is a study in exactly that quality: artists whose work stops you cold because there is simply nothing else like it! I hope you enjoy this week’s selections of artworks. Thanks to my impressive grasp of technology, I embedded a video and thus was able to fit FIFTEEN artworks below. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts.
