Every art collection starts with one work—and Foundations 2026, Artsy’s annual showcase of emerging art, is the perfect place to start. Here, you’ll find original paintings, photography, sculpture, and prints by more than 240 rising artists at over 85 galleries worldwide, all priced to put a first artwork—or a new addition to a growing collection—within reach.

Buying your first piece doesn’t need to be complicated. It can be as simple as finding a piece that stops you: a color that matches a memory, a subject that makes you laugh, a texture you want to live with. After all, art is, and should be, intensely personal.

Here, our team has combed Foundations for the works under $2,500 we can’t stop thinking about.

Under $1,000

Vanessa McKernan

Embrace, 2025

Presented by Abbozzo Gallery

Price: $850

Embrace, 2025
Vanessa McKernan

Abbozzo Gallery

If I’ve learned one thing in this life, it’s that there’s nothing better than a hug when things get tough. This exquisitely colored painting by Canadian painter Vanessa McKernan captures an embrace that fully conveys why they can be so transporting. Resting in each other’s arms, the two central faces—parent and child, perhaps—have their eyes closed, their expressions intimate and peaceful. Between the expressionist figures in the center and the floating orange flowers, I find the whole scene immensely calming: something from a dream in which everything works out okay in the end.

McKernan is based in the Ottawa Valley countryside, where she says the surrounding nature influences her work. Personally, I can see the influence of Pierre Bonnard in her color choices, as well as in the abstract gestures toward greenery in the background.

—Josie Thaddeus-Johns, associate director of content

Under $2,000

Maremi Andreozzi

Genevieve Estelle Jones, 2026

Presented by Adah Rose Gallery

Price: $1,200

Genevieve Estelle Jones, 2026
Maremi Andreozzi

Adah Rose Gallery

Featureless silhouettes are the subjects of Maremi Andreozzi’s series “A Life Well Lived.” Genevieve Estelle Jones (2026) is one such protagonist. Even though the painting’s face doesn’t have eyes to catch yours, you can still feel her stare. I quickly discovered that Jones was an amateur woman naturalist in the 1800s, often called “the other Audubon,” referring to the famed American conservationist. Andreozzi lifted details from existing portraits of Jones—the perfect collar, the dangling earrings—and dropped them into this surreal portrait. The silhouette is surrounded by symbols of what Jones was all about: crisscrossing twigs and delicate bird eggs accompany her silhouette, a nod to her overlooked legacy. I chose this work because I love all things Victorian, and Genevieve Estelle Jones is a reminder that there’s always a surprising figure or fact (the more obscure the better) that can light up my day.

—Sydney Gelman, copywriter

Maja Sisse

Trout Circle, 2024

Presented by Galleri Zeuthen

Price: $1,750

Trout Circle, 2024
Maja Sisse

Galleri Zeuthen

I’ve always had a soft spot for sculptures that play with our sense of perception. That’s why I was immediately drawn to Trout Circle (2024) by Danish artist Maja Sisse, on view in Galleri Zeuthen’s Foundations presentation. Three ceramic trout chase one another nose-to-tail, forming a near-perfect ring, enmeshed in what could be a synchronized swimming routine. Their wide, glassy eyes and slightly gawky expressions make the whole arrangement feel as though they might break formation at any moment.

What I love most is Sisse’s handling of the ceramic surface. Mottled blues, greens, creams, and rusty browns give the fish the weathered look of something dredged from the bottom of a river, while the carefully rendered scales and fins give each one a wonderfully tactile presence. Caught in this circle, these trout seem destined to keep following one another forever. It’s the kind of sculpture I’d happily let swim circles on my shelf.

—Arun Kakar, senior art market editor

Under $2,500

House of Goblin

Yon Oak, 2025

Presented by Cob

Price: £1,500

Yon Oak, 2025
House of Goblin

Cob

I was drawn to this perfect ceramic sconce, an outlier among the works in Foundations, for the way it marries form and function. Shaped like an oak leaf with fluid, biomorphic lines—reminiscent of 20th-century artist Jean (a.k.a. Hans) Arp—it feels timeless and a little strange, spare yet whimsical. I’ve only just learned about House of Goblin, the English artist collective behind it, whose hand-built ceramics merge utilitarian and sculptural approaches. They source many of their glaze materials from natural sites across the U.K.; here, glazes interact, as a matte, mossy green gives way to a bubbly texture, like a pale minty foam.

The title adds another layer of charm: Yon Oak references Alfred Tennyson’s 1889 poem “The Oak,” which follows a tree through the seasons as a metaphor for aging and the strength we gain over time. It’s a lot for one small object—and still, it’s a lovely perch for a candle.

—Casey Lesser, director of content

Polina Osipova

Arrow from archives, 2025

Presented by JO-HS

Price: $2,500

Arrow from archives, 2025
Polina Osipova

JO-HS

I first learned of Polina Osipova from a video of the artist operating Pearl Mechanism 2 (2020), a whimsical contraption she’d made with strings of pearls. The video was mesmerizing, delightful, and the perfect introduction to her nontraditional practice.

Born in Russia, Osipova now lives and works in London, and she had a solo exhibition, “A Living Inheritance,” with JO-HS in New York earlier this year. Osipova comes from a Chuvash family, a Turkic ethnic group with a long, complex history in Russia and Central Asia, whose culture and language were shaped by Mongolian, Arabic, and Persian influences.

Arrow From the Archives (2025) is emblematic of her most recent works and based on this heritage. Here, the artist transforms imagery from family photographs into childlike objects. She uses embroidery and needlework from Chuvash traditions as a way of stitching her ancestral knowledge into these works. I particularly like Arrow From the Archives because its plush softness is counterbalanced by the sharp point of the arrow. The bow and arrow are objects of childhood imagination, as well as of protection.

—Katie White, senior staff writer