Art
“Artists on Our Radar” is a monthly series focused on five artists who have our attention. Utilizing our art expertise and Artsy data, we’ve determined which artists made an impact this past month through new gallery representation, exhibitions, auctions, art fairs, or fresh works on Artsy.
B. 1995, Senegal. Lives and works in Vienna.
A sense of constant motion is embedded within Alexandre Diop’s monumental mixed-media works, which are inspired by his background as a dancer and musician. The Vienna-based artist combines fragments from the world around him—discarded bits of metal, food packaging, nails, and door hinges—into what he calls “object-images,” often depicting frenetic, lithe bodies. Diop, who is newly represented by Stephen Friedman Gallery, will open a solo exhibition, “Run For Your Life !,” there on September 19th, marking his debut with the gallery and in London.
One of the works on view, A Vos marques ! Prêt ! Illegal – On Your Marks ! Get Set ! Illegal (2025), captures the exhibition’s sense of urgency. In the experimental portrait, Diop combines painting techniques with various found objects, layering textiles, netting, book covers, and expressive marks to bring his subjects to life. The piece, which mirrors the starting line of a race, draws inspiration from the story of Olympic medalist Jesse Owens, speaking to themes of freedom and resistance.
Following his training at the Inter-University Center for Dance Berlin, Diop continued his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His solo exhibitions include presentations at Spinello Projects, the Rubell Museum in Miami, and the Josephinum in Vienna. His work can be found in a number of notable collections, including the Albertina Museum and the Rubell Museum.
—Adeola Gay, Senior Curatorial Manager
B. 1985, South Korea. Lives and works in New Jersey.
Ahrong Kim’s surreal ceramic sculptures turn the body topsy-turvy. Across her work, feminine figures dressed in cutesy outfits pop out of vividly patterned, brightly colored surfaces and curvy, disembodied legs stick out of unexpected objects. Drawing together Korean and Western cultural references, these mishmashed figures explore transformation through a cheeky and unexpected lens.
Kim’s current solo show, “Last Rehearsal,” at LaiSun Keane in Boston (on view through September 28th), features works dating from 2021 to the present. They embody the transformative experiences of motherhood, striking a playful tone while reflecting on this stage of life. For example, in Occupied (2025), the top half of a woman’s head, forehead crinkled with worry, sits atop a harlequin-patterned stool. The tiny gilded hands stuck to her hairdo point in many different directions, evoking a multitude of conflicting mental demands. Kim’s signature motif, upside-down, disembodied legs, protrudes from the sculpture’s top in a whimsical flourish.
Kim earned a BFA in ceramics from Konkuk University in Seoul and an MFA in ceramics from the Rhode Island School of Design. She has exhibited at the Hunterdon Art Museum in New Jersey, and her work is in the permanent collections of the RISD Museum, Fuller Craft Museum, and the American Museum of Ceramic Art.
—Josie Thaddeus-Johns, Senior Editor
B. 1991, Pinar del Río, Cuba. Lives and works in Miami.
Marlon Portales’s enticing paintings are like pages torn from a lost storybook—fantastical, vividly colored, and mysterious. Borrowing a sense of the natural sublime from the Romantic painters of the 19th century, then dialing up the saturation, the Cuban artist paints scenes evocative of myths or fairytales. His solo presentation with Miami’s Spinello Projects at The Armory Show earlier this month featured a cast of tragic-seeming heroes. In The Last Man (2024), a figure in golden, princely attire is pierced by arrows; in The Dance (2025), three men flee from a fearsome, whip-brandishing female centaur. Even when the narrative context is unclear, the paintings are inflected with high drama.
Portales favors swirling, gestural brushstrokes and foregrounds soft details, like dainty hands holding flowers and rippling, shimmery fabrics. His aesthetic is deliberately feminine—signaling a rejection of notions of masculine strength often embedded in heroic tales and of machismo in Cuban society more broadly. “Since leaving Cuba, my universe has expanded and freed itself from many burdens and prejudices,” the artist recently told Portray Magazine.
After studying art at the Academia Profesional de Artes Visuales Tiburcio Lorenzo in his hometown of Pinar del Río, Cuba, Portales earned a BFA in visual arts from the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana. In 2018, he participated in the prestigious Fountainhead Residency in Miami, and he has subsequently had solo shows at Pan American Art Projects and Spinello Projects.
—Olivia Horn, Managing Editor
B. 1993, United Kingdom. Lives and works in London.
Josh Raz’s large-scale paintings look as if they’ve been lifted from the edge of a dream, with pattern-rich surfaces depicting glistening skies and cities in cosmic, gestural swirls. Painted from imagination, these landscapes hover between the fantastical and the familiar. They could be anywhere, leaving room for the viewer’s own associations and memories.
Earlier this month, Raz showed new works in Ronchini Gallery’s presentation at The Armory Show—one of Artsy’s best booths at the fair. One of those paintings, Deep Ford (Mudlark at Deptford Creek)(2025), peers through a dark brick-lined tunnel under a bridge, which opens onto a twinkling cityscape. The scene is tinted the dark blue of dust; lights bounce off the water’s surface like glowing golden beads. Raz’s loose brushstrokes and rendering of shadows in color reference Impressionist forebearers like Claude Monet, giving the painting a timeless appeal.
Raz graduated from Newcastle University with a bachelor’s degree in fine art in 2016, the same year he won the Hix Award for emerging artists in the U.K. In London, he’s had solo shows at Ronchini and Painters Painting Paintings, and, this year alone, has been featured in group shows at Cob in London, HdM Gallery in Beijing, and F2T Gallery in Milan.
—Maxwell Rabb, Staff Writer
B. 1987, Barcelona. Lives and works in Barcelona.
In Spanish artist Guim Tió Zarraluki’s recent soft, introspective compositions, faceless or blurred figures find themselves in vast, often serene landscapes. A sense of solitude pervades these fields, deserts, and other expanses, reflecting the artist’s ongoing exploration of the human condition.
Figures are defined here less by their identity than by their affect: Their postures often suggest contemplation or fatigue. In El cami mes llarg (The longest path)(2024), an ambiguous figure has taken a fork in the road, but glances back—perhaps regretfully—at the path he left behind. The simple gesture carries surprising emotional weight. As in many of the artist’s recent works, the painting’s warm tones are gentle and subdued, contributing to an enveloping sense of peace.
Earlier this month, Zarraluki, who boasts a substantial Instagram following and has experienced significant growth in inquiries on Artsy, caused a buzz at The Armory Show. There, his works were featured in the booth of Spanish gallery Alzueta. This presentation was preceded by a solo show in March with Ruttkowski;68 in Paris. Zarraluki, who received his BFA in fine arts at the University of Barcelona in 2010, has also shown with galleries including Madrid’s Coleccion SOLO and Montreal’s Patel Brown.
—Arun Kakar, Senior Art Market Editor
