Contemporary Figurative Painting

The revival of figurative painting transformed the art world over the past decade, marked by a rise in museum exhibitions and auction records for artists like Kerry James Marshall, Nicole Eisenman, Jenny Saville, and more. “One of the exciting reasons to paint the figure in 2019 is the expansion of whose images are being depicted and seen,” Los Angeles-based artist Jesse Mockrintold Artsy. From Alex Katz to Amy Sherald, many of today’s most influential painters dedicate themselves to representational art, uncovering many people, places, and ideas that have been historically overlooked in art history. Below, discover a curated selection of figurative paintings from some of the rising stars of the 2010s.