Emerging Artists

Art collectors interested in learning about today’s top emerging artists can find everything they need right here. These hot, new emerging artists encompass a wide variety of styles and genres, including plein-air painting, landscapes, still lifes, wildlife, western paintings, and more. Many of these emerging contemporary artists have won awards in highly respected art competitions. You’ll also learn about the many galleries for emerging artists—a great source for purchasing artworks by these rising stars.

Kyle Ma, Life on the Farm, oil, 16 x 20.

Emerging Artists | Kyle Ma

Kyle Ma is excited about his first solo show this summer. It’s a memorable milestone for many artists, but there’s one thing that makes Ma’s debut at Wilcox Gallery in Jackson, WY, especially noteworthy: The Texas-based painter is just 16 years old, and by all accounts he’s the new wunderkind on...

Slade Wheeler, Without Delay, oil.

Emerging Artists | Slade Wheeler

Legendary architect Mies van der Rohe once said, “God is in the details,” and those famous words could also be a mantra for Slade Wheeler. The California artist creates highly detailed trompe l’oeil works that can take up to two months each to complete. The tromp l’oeil style requires tight, realistic...

Jeremy Manyik, Standing Ground, oil, 60 x 36.

Emerging Artists | Jeremy Manyik

The year 2016 may only be halfway over, but it’s already brought great success to Colorado painter Jeremy Manyik. On the national stage, Manyik was one of 25 finalists in the Portrait Society of America’s annual art competition, and on the local front, he recently won a top award from the...

Emerging Artists | Roberta Combs

Light, shadow, mood, and drama— these are a few of Roberta Combs’ favorite artistic elements. For the Canadian artist, painting is more about them and less about subject matter. Hence the variety of genres in her oeuvre. In fact, whether a painting depicts tomatoes, toddlers, or tea roses, Combs considers them...

Emerging Artists | Kathie Odom

When it comes to inspiration, there’s no place like home for Kathie Odom. And “home” for her means the entire state of Tennessee. Odom relishes driving the state’s back roads, where vintage houses, barns, and bridges dot the landscape—all visual fodder for the landscape painter. “The more rural and old the...

Emerging Artists | Meridee Mandio

Long before she even understood the idea of a career in fine art, Meridee Mandio had a pencil, pastel, or crayon in her tiny hand. As a child, Mandio says, she drew and painted out of sheer delight. And while growing up in Pennsylvania, she was fortunate enough to have an...

Kimberly Wurster, Bumper Crop, pastel, 20 x 16.

Emerging Artists | Kimberly Wurster

In her former life, Kimberly Wurster developed wildlife refuges in Montana. These days she is more likely to paint the winged inhabitants of such places near her home in Oregon. Her impressionistic depictions of various birds and waterfowl often include an abstracted background that brings the subject forward as the focal...

Dave Merrill, In the Pink, oil, 16 x 20.

Emerging Artists | Dave Merrill

In the world of Aesop’s fables, foxes are symbols for slyness, crows represent vanity, and wolves symbolize loneliness. Painter Dave Merrill discusses these literary conceits with ease, noting that such ideas inspire his artworks.

Emerging Artists | Matt Linz

For Minnesota artist Matt Linz, 2015 was a busy year filled with shows, awards, and other accolades. Three different portraits by Linz won top honors in various venues, including the Oil Painters of America Online Showcase, the American Impressionist Society National Juried Exhibition, and the online BoldBrush Painting Contest. And 2016...