Top 16 American Painters Living Today

Jonas Wood is an American artist recognized for his inventive and intricately patterned portrayals of domestic settings, landscapes, and sporting events. Based in Los Angeles, Wood is best known for his distinctive style characterized by its blocky graphic aesthetic which imbues his paintings and prints with a visually captivating yet flattened quality. His compositions often incorporate objects featuring self-contained images such as televisions or canvases on walls resulting in complex picture-within-picture arrangements. Drawing inspiration from a blend of collage studies, drawings, and photographs, Wood's works exhibit parallels to the vibrant creations of artists like David Hockney, Henri Matisse, and Alex Katz. Born in 1977 in Boston, Massachusetts, he pursued his artistic education culminating in an MFA in painting from the University of Washington in 2002. Today, Wood's pieces are housed in prestigious collections worldwide including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Saatchi Gallery in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Number 15, Julie Morettu. Julie Morettu, a contemporary artist originally from Ethiopia and now residing in the United States, is celebrated for expansive abstract paintings. Her artistic style, which merges abstract expressionism with pop art, reflects the influences of prominent 20th century painters such as Vasily Kandinsky, Kazimir Malevich, and Piet Mondrian. Operating as both painter and printmaker, Morettu intricately layers pigment, graphite, and ink to construct densely intersecting lines of color, topographical elements, and geometric shapes. Born in 1970 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Morettu's family relocated to the U.S. in 1977. She completed her undergraduate studies at Kalamazoo College in 1992 before independently embarking on her artistic career and later earning her MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1997. Awarded the MacArthur Fellowship in 2005, Morettu gained further acclaim when Goldman Sachs unveiled her expansive mural in the Manhattan headquarters lobby in 2009. Presently based in New York City, Morettu's works are housed in prestigious collections worldwide, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Hammer Museum of Los Angeles, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Number 14. Mark Bradford. Mark Bradford is a contemporary African-American artist who is renowned for his diverse conceptual practice, particularly his multimedia abstract paintings, characterized by intricate surfaces that suggest his exploration of emotional and political landscapes. Born in 1961 in Los Angeles, Bradford pursued his artistic education at the California Institute of the Arts, earning an MFA in 1997. His oeuvre frequently delves into themes of race and poverty, exemplified by works like the site-specific installation Help Us from 2008, where he utilized wood fragments from Hurricane Katrina's aftermath to spell out Help Us atop a Los Angeles building, evoking the desperation of New Orleans survivors. In 2017, Bradford represented the United States Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with Tomorrow is Another Day, later exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Presently based in Los Angeles, Bradford's creations are housed in esteemed collections worldwide, including the Hishore Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C. Number 13. Stanley Whitney. Stanley Whitney, a contemporary African-American artist, celebrated for his utilization of a freeform grid of colors within his paintings, draws inspiration from a diverse array of sources, including Egyptian hieroglyphs, jazz music, and the artistic styles of Bob Thompson and Giorgio Morandi. Employing a technique where he blocks out squares of color that both complement and clash against each other, Whitney imbues his works with a quilt-like texture and vibrancy. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1946, Whitney initially studied at the Kansas City Art Institute before relocating to New York City in 1968 and later attending the Yale School of where he earned his MFA in 1972. Despite his reluctance to exclusively focus on his Black identity in his art, Whitney encountered challenges in establishing his artistic identity during the 1970s and 80s when abstract painting fell out of favor. In 2015, his solo exhibition, Stanley Whitney, Dance the Orange, at the Studio Museum in Harlem, showcased this distinctive style. Currently residing and working alongside his wife, Marina Adams, between New York and Panama, Italy, Whitney's artworks are esteemed additions to the collections of institutions such as the Nelson Adkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Yale University Art Gallery in New Haven. Number 12. Mark Grotchan. Mark Grotchan is an American artist who is celebrated for his abstract paintings that engage in intricate dialogues with the works of Russian constructivist Kazimir Malevich, color field painter Barnett Newman, and op art painter Bridget Riley. His oeuvre often delves into the concept of the vanishing point of perspective, serving as a springboard for the creation of vividly expressive, brightly colored artworks. Additionally, Grotchan is recognized for his mass sculptures crafted from bronze sheets and cardboard boxes. Born in Pasadena, California in 1968, he pursued his education at the University of Colorado Boulder before obtaining an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. In 2008, he garnered critical acclaim with a solo exhibition, Dancing Black Butterflies, at the Gagosian Gallery in New York. Currently based in Los Angeles, Grotchan's works are housed in prestigious collections worldwide, including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Number 11, Caine de Wiley. Caine de Wiley, a contemporary African-American painter celebrated for his distinctive portraiture, often depicts young black men and women in a photorealist style set against intricate, densely patterned backgrounds. Drawing inspiration from a diversity of sources, like Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres's portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte, Islamic architectural motives, and hip-hop culture, Wiley intricately weaves these elements into his compositions. By replacing depictions of aristocratic Europeans holding symbols of power, wealth, and status from past centuries with urban black men, Wiley's goal is to change perceptions of people of color in Born in 1977 in Los Angeles, he earned his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1999 and his MFA from the Yale School of Art in 2001. Wiley's career boasts numerous successful exhibitions, including Caine de Wiley, A New Republic, showcased at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 2015. Notably, on February 12, 2018, Wiley, alongside artist Amy Sherrill, unveiled their official presidential portraits of Barack Obama and Michelle Obama for the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Wiley's works are prominently featured in esteemed collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Denver Art Museum, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. George Kondo, a contemporary American artist renowned for his distinctive figurative paintings and prints, is characterized by fractured portraits and bold imagery that often reinterprets works from the old masters within the context of contemporary American culture, blending their aesthetics with influences reminiscent of Pablo Picasso and Willem de Kooning. Describing his approach as psychological cubism, Kondo, born in 1957 in Concord, New Hampshire, pursued studies in art history and music theory at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell. In the late 1970s, he was part of the band The Girls, and it was through a meeting with in New York that he was encouraged to pursue an art career in the city. Kondo's early exhibitions took place in the East Village Galleries between 1981 and 1983, followed by a period working at Andy Warhol's factory before relocating to Paris for a decade starting in 1985. Notably, Kondo collaborated with musician Kanye West on the cover art for his album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy in 2010. A year later, he was the focus of a significant retrospective exhibition titled Mental States at the New Museum. Kondo currently resides and works in New York with his paintings held in esteemed collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Rubel Family Collection in Miami, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Number nine, Kenny Scharf. Kenny Scharf, an American painter and iconic figure in the street art scene, rose to prominence in the downtown New York art scene of the 1980s with his distinctive graffiti paintings. His work, characterized by stylized aliens and popular culture icons arranged in vibrant tessellated patterns, garnered him widespread recognition and fame. Scharf has expressed his intention to integrate art into everyday life, believing that encountering art unexpectedly on the streets can be transformative and inspiring. Many of his improvisation and playful murals still embellish the streets of New York today. Throughout his career, Scharf formed friendships with luminaries such as Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, and his talent earned him a place in esteemed institutions like the 1985 Whitney Biennial. Born in Los Angeles in 1958, Scharf has been based in New York since completing his BFA in painting at the School of Visual Arts in 1980. His work has been showcased in solo exhibitions at prominent venues such as the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Miami Center for Fine Arts, and the Queen Museum of Art. Number 8. Christopher Wall Renowned for his distinctive style, in his paintings, Christopher Wall contrasts both stenciled text or abstract brushwork with white backgrounds. In his stenciled pieces, words merge together and break at the canvas' edges as seen in works like Apocalypse Now from 1988, featuring the phrase, sell the house, sell the car, sell the kids. Born in 1955 in Boston, Massachusetts, Wall initially attended Sarah Lawrence College briefly before transitioning to the New York Studio School. Engaging with New York's downtown art scene in the 1980s alongside luminaries like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, and Cindy Sherman, Wall integrated graffiti techniques into his practice, later incorporating silkscreens and paint rollers. His works have been showcased in prestigious institutions globally, including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, and the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Presently, Wall resides in works between Martha, Texas, and New York, alongside his wife, the painter Charlene Von Heel. Richard Prince, an American artist renowned for his utilization of appropriated imagery, explores concepts of authenticity and ownership. He does so by integrating into his work photographs sourced from consumer culture, ranging from advertising to social media, sparking contentious discussions about copyright and intellectual property within the art sphere. Influenced by pop art figures such as Sherry Levine, Andy Warhol, and Jeff Koons, as well as abstract expressionist Willem de Kooning in terms of painting techniques, Prince, born in 1949 in the Panama Canal Zone, relocated to New York in 1973, where he began scrutinizing advertising pages while employed at Time Incorporated. His notable series Cowboys originated from Marlboro cigarette ads, while his celebrated Nurse paintings were inspired by pulp novel covers. In 2014, Prince stirred controversy once again, this time involving Instagram, with his new portrait series comprising blown-up screenshots of selfies from the social platform. His works are housed in esteemed collections worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Goetz Collection in Munich, and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Alex Katz, a contemporary American artist celebrated for his expansive paintings featuring landscapes, flowers, and portraits of his wife, Ada, is recognized for his distinctive flattened forms and simplification of detail is evident in works like Gray Day from 1992. Born in 1927 in Brooklyn, New York, Katz began his artistic journey by attending the Cooper Union School of Art and the Shohegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, where he explored planar painting of the Maine landscape. In the mid-1950s, he became part of the intimate circle of artists known as the 10th Street Scene, alongside figures like Louis Dodd, Larry Rivers, and Fairfield Porter. Katz divides his time between residences in Lincolnville, Maine and New York, and his works are prominently featured in esteemed collections worldwide, including the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Colby College Museum of Art in Waterville, Maine, the Albertina Museum in Vienna, and the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Sean Scully is an American-Irish artist renowned for his abstract paintings characterized by layers of brushy alternating colored squares or stripes. While his non-representational works may seem to lack specific references, they often stem from particular memories of places and objects, like his 2015 Biennale exhibition, Landscape, which stemmed from a recollection of memories of his trips to Venice over the years. Born in 1945 in Dublin, Ireland, Scully moved to London during his childhood and pursued art studies at the Central School of Art and Croydon College of Art, earning his B.A. from Newcastle University in 1972. He emigrated to the United States in 1975 and became a citizen in 1983. Currently, he divides his time between New York, Barcelona, and Munich. Scully's artworks are part of numerous prestigious collections, including the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Reina Sofia National Museum in Madrid, and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Kerry James Marshall is a contemporary painter who examines the profound impacts of the civil rights movement on the everyday lives of African Americans. His narrative scenes, drawn from both historical events and his own experiences, delve into lesser-known aspects and objects significant to both contemporary and historical Black culture. Marshall's work also engages with the Western painting tradition, addressing themes of mastery, authorship, and the historical erasure of Black bodies in art. Similar to Kerry Walker, he often intensifies the color of the figures in his paintings, rendering them as Black as the pigment allows, which accentuates the surrounding color and content. Born in 1955 in Birmingham, Alabama, Marshall grew up in the Watts neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles and later studied at the Otis College of Art and Design. Marshall has exhibited with the David Swerner Gallery in New York, and his works are part of the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, among others. In 2016, his work was the focus of a major retrospective titled Mastery, which toured the MCA Chicago MOCA and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to widespread critical acclaim. In 2018, Marshall's Pastimes from 1997 sold for $21.1 million at auction, setting a record for the highest price ever paid for a work by a living African-American artist. Number 3. Edward Ruscha Edward Ruscha is an American artist linked to West Coast pop art, known for his unique perspective on the American scene and his ability to merge the verbal with the visual. Raised in Oklahoma City, Ruscha moved to Los Angeles in 1956 to study at the Schoenhardt Art Institute, where he focused on painting, photography, and graphic arts. Initially dabbling in abstract expressionism, Ruscha soon gravitated towards using words and images from everyday culture rendered in the hard-edged style of advertising. His notable artworks from the 1960s include the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Fire, Actual Size, Large Trademark with Eight Spotlights, and OOF. He also created influential artist books featuring photographs of Southern California's built environments. In the 1980s, Ruscha's work featured softened and blurred images in Griseo, and in the 90s, he incorporated rugged mountain scenes common in vehicle advertisements. Continuing his exploration of words and images into the 21st century, Ruscha produced significant works such as Pay Nothing Until April, and he up and went downtown, and his art has been showcased in numerous exhibitions, including the 2018 Retrospective, Wordplay, Prints, Photographs, and Paintings by Ed Ruscha at the Jocelyn Art Museum. 2. Julian Schnabel Julian Schnabel is a painter and filmmaker recognized as a key figure in the American neo-expressionist movement alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Eric Fischli. Schnabel is known for his gestural paint application on large canvases, the use of unconventional materials like broken plates, and his representation of the human figure. Born in 1951 in Brooklyn, New York, Schnabel joined the independent study program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in the late 1970s. This period marked the beginning of his rise to public prominence. In the 1990s, Schnabel ventured into filmmaking with Basquiat from 1996, a fictionalized account of his late friend's life. He later won the Grand Jury Prize for Before Night Falls from 2000 at the Venice Film Festival, and the Best Director Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly from 2007. Schnabel currently lives in works in both New York City and Montauk, New York. His works are part of prestigious collections including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, among others. 1. Jasper Johns Jasper Johns is a seminal American artist who bridged the gap between abstract expressionism and pop art. His most famous work, Flag, is a collage of paper in caustic oil and fabric that abstracts the American stars and stripes, diminishing its symbolic power. Born in 1930 in Augusta, Georgia, he left the University of South Carolina after a year and moved to New York, where he encountered Robert Rauschenberg, Merce Cunningham, and John Cage. His sculptural paintings and readymades, along with Rauschenberg's work, marked the revival of Marcel Duchamp's influence on contemporary art. Their neo-dada creations, incorporating cultural imagery like signs, maps, and targets, paralleled the innovations of pop artists such as Andy Warhol. Jasper Johns' works regularly receive millions of dollars at sale and auction, including a reported $110 million sale in 2010. At multiple times, works by Johns have held the title of Most Paid for a Work by a Living Artist. The artist's works are held in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.