Emerging Artists to Watch from Cape Town to Seoul: 8 Names Collectors Should Know
By Vik Chadha · January 22, 2024
Emerging Artists to Watch from Cape Town to Seoul: 8 Names Collectors Should Know
If you only follow the New York and London gallery calendars, you see emerging artists late, usually after they've been picked up by a big gallery and their prices have been reset. Many of the most interesting early-career artists are represented first by galleries in their home cities: Cape Town, Nairobi, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul. Those galleries sell internationally, show at the big fairs, and are usually glad to hear from collectors abroad.
This list is organised by region. It's a companion to our medium-by-medium list of emerging painters, fiber artists and ceramicists, and none of the artists overlap.
What I looked for:
- Real momentum in the last two years. A first solo show in a new country, a museum presentation, a prize or a major residency, each linked below to its source.
- A clear way to buy. Every artist here has a gallery that sells new work on the primary market.
- Work that holds up in person. I've favoured artists whose materials and processes reward seeing the actual object.
I haven't quoted prices, because none of these galleries publish them and asking prices for early-career artists change quickly. Ask the gallery directly; the end of this post covers how.
Africa
1. Manyaku Mashilo
Based in: Cape Town (born Limpopo, South Africa, 1991) Medium: Acrylic, ink and red ochre on canvas; drawing and collage Gallery: Southern Guild (Cape Town and Los Angeles)
Mashilo paints large, poised women who take up the whole canvas. Her recent work traces knowledge passed down the female line in her family and in Sepedi culture. The red in the paintings is mixed with ochre, a reference to letsoku, the paste of red ochre, clay and animal fat applied to young women during the koma coming-of-age ceremony. The series also honours her late grandmother, a healer in her community.
Recent milestones: The Laying of Hands, her first solo show in the United States, ran at Southern Guild Los Angeles from February 13 to May 8, 2025. It followed An Order of Being at Southern Guild Cape Town in November 2023. She has been included in group shows at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, Kunsthal KAdE in the Netherlands, and Gagosian in London.
Where to see or buy: Southern Guild in Cape Town or Los Angeles, or at its art fair booths.
2. Agnes Waruguru
Based in: Amsterdam (Kenyan, born 1994) Medium: Textile, natural pigments, needlework, printmaking, ceramics and installation Gallery: Circle Art Gallery, Nairobi
Waruguru uses water as both tool and subject. She pours salt and water onto fabric and paper as a primer, then layers natural pigments, inks and pastels so that the surface dries into something like a map or a weather system. Her materials are often domestic: cotton, linen, khadi paper, thread. The work is about memory, grief and how people relate to land, and the installations are built to slow you down.
Recent milestones: Her second solo show at Circle Art Gallery, What the Water Left Behind, ran in Nairobi from November 20, 2024 to January 3, 2025. Her gallery lists a residency at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam and inclusion in The Roundness of Loss at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam in 2025.
Where to see or buy: Circle Art Gallery in Nairobi. She has also shown with Sanatorium in Istanbul.
Collector note: Works on khadi paper and unstretched cloth need framing that lets the material breathe. Ask the gallery how pieces were shown in the exhibition.
Brazil
3. Agrade Camíz
Based in: Rio de Janeiro (born 1988) Medium: Painting, sculpture, murals and graffiti Gallery: A Gentil Carioca (Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo)
Camíz paints the visual language of working-class Rio: the patterned iron railings, window grilles and tiled walls of popular architecture. She sets these forms against bodies and uses them to talk about sexuality, beauty and the policing of women. Alongside her studio work she is an active muralist and graffiti artist, so the same imagery shows up on walls across the city.
Recent milestones: Her paintings were shown at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2025 in Horizontes, an exhibition of Brazilian painting. Her new solo show, Nome Próprio, is on view at A Gentil Carioca in Rio de Janeiro from September 19 to October 31, 2026. Her work is in the collections of Inhotim, the PIPA Foundation and the Bredin Prat Foundation in Paris.
Where to see or buy: A Gentil Carioca. She also appeared in a 2024 group show at Mariane Ibrahim in Mexico City.
4. Laís Amaral
Based in: Rio de Janeiro (born São Gonçalo, 1993) Medium: Acrylic, spray paint and ink on canvas, worked with combs and other tools Gallery: Mendes Wood DM
Amaral is self-taught and calls herself an "artist-artisan." She lays down black first, then scrapes, etches and redraws through it to reveal colour underneath. Her tools include manicure instruments and the wide-tooth combs and picks used for Afro hair, a deliberate choice that ties the paintings to her identity as an Afro-Brazilian woman. The results read as abstract landscapes and are often about water, drought and land under strain. In 2017 she co-founded Trovoa, an artist collective in Niterói.
Recent milestones: Her New York solo show, What happens at the seaside at dawn?, ran at Mendes Wood DM from September 6 to October 3, 2024. The Goodwood Art Foundation in England showed her work in Erasure from November 22, 2025 to April 12, 2026, her first major institutional presentation in Europe. She was a 2025 nominee for Brazil's PIPA Prize.
Where to see or buy: Mendes Wood DM.
East Asia
5. Moka Lee
Based in: Seoul (born 1996) Medium: Oil on cotton canvas Galleries: Jason Haam (Seoul), David Kordansky Gallery (Los Angeles)
Lee paints portraits of strangers from images she finds on social media, along with childhood photos found online and still lifes of birthday cakes. The paintings keep the flat light and awkward crops of phone pictures but slow them down, so a throwaway selfie starts to feel like a formal portrait. CNN has covered the practice. She earned a BFA at Sejong University and an MFA at the Korea National University of Arts.
Recent milestones: FACE ID ran at Carlos/Ishikawa in London from January 18 to February 15, 2025, as part of Condo London. Her first U.S. solo show, Persona Works, ran at David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles from July 10 to August 22, 2026. Her work is in the collection of the Seoul Museum of Art.
Where to see or buy: Jason Haam in Seoul or David Kordansky Gallery. Expect demand to be high after a first Kordansky show.
United Kingdom
6. Hettie Inniss
Based in: London (born 1999) Medium: Acrylic, oil, oil stick and pigment on linen and canvas Gallery: GRIMM (Amsterdam, London, New York)
Inniss makes abstract paintings about memory, and especially about how smells bring memories back. Her gallery calls the approach "Proustian." The paintings are bright, layered fields of colour that try to capture light, touch and the feeling of a remembered place rather than its picture. She finished her MA in painting at the Royal College of Art in 2023, supported by the Sir Frank Bowling Scholarship.
Recent milestones: Her debut solo show, Rememories from the Floating World, opened at GRIMM London in May 2024 and was reviewed by Frieze. It was followed by The Garden of Earthly Delights at GRIMM New York (June 27 to August 8, 2025) and The Waiting Room at GRIMM Amsterdam (October 24 to December 6, 2025). She was included in A Room Hung With Thoughts: British Painting Now at the Green Family Art Foundation in Dallas in 2025.
Where to see or buy: GRIMM, at any of its three locations.
7. Xin Liu
Based in: London (born in Xinjiang, China) Medium: Sculpture, installation and video, using latex, bronze, aluminum, glass, silicone and custom electronics Gallery: Make Room, Los Angeles
Liu is an artist and engineer. She studied engineering at Tsinghua University, then took an MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design and a master's at the MIT Media Lab. Her work looks at what technology leaves behind: space debris, rocket fragments, altered organisms, the residue of trying to extend life. It's the most technical work on this list, but the sculptures are also strange and beautiful as objects.
Recent milestones: Make Room gave her a solo presentation, The Theater of Metamorphoses, at Frieze Los Angeles in February 2025. She won the K11 Art Foundation Artist Prize in 2024, which led to EXHAUST, her first solo exhibition in Italy, at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin (April 15 to October 11, 2026), with curatorial support from Hans Ulrich Obrist. Her gallery lists works in the collections of M+ and MAXXI.
Where to see or buy: Make Room in Los Angeles.
Collector note: Works with electronics or moving parts need a maintenance plan. Ask who services them and whether the artist provides documentation.
France
8. Geoffroy Pithon
Based in: France Medium: Gouache, drawing and watercolour on paper, from A3 sheets to large installations Gallery: MAĀT Gallery, Paris
Pithon spent eight years as a graphic designer after graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris in 2012, and co-founded the design collective Formes Vives, before turning to painting. His gallery interview describes a practice that started with small works on A3 paper, combining drawing and gouache, and has grown into much larger pieces. The work is full of colour, shapes and words, and the design background shows in how confidently he handles flat colour and composition.
Recent milestones: Three solo shows at MAĀT Gallery in two years: Paysage des Choses (March 14 to April 14, 2024), Carmina Paginata (July 4 to August 2, 2025) and Botanique Murmure (October 23 to November 22, 2025).
Where to see or buy: MAĀT Gallery. Works on paper are the most accessible entry point on this list for many collectors, but ask about framing; paper needs UV-filtering glazing and acid-free mounts.
Buying from a Gallery in Another Country
Most of the galleries above are outside the United States. That's normal and manageable, but it changes a few things.
Make the first contact count
Write to the gallery with the specific works or series you're interested in, how you found the artist, and what kind of collection you're building. Galleries in smaller art markets often place work carefully, especially when demand is high, and they want to know the work is going to someone who'll keep it and lend it to exhibitions. Our guide to building artist relationships covers what to say.
Ask about the full cost, not just the price
The price on an invoice is rarely the final cost when you buy across borders. Ask about:
- Shipping and crating. Fine art shippers charge by volume and handling. A large canvas from Cape Town or Rio can cost a meaningful share of the price to ship.
- Import duties and taxes. Original paintings and sculptures are often duty-free going into the U.S., but rules differ by country and by object, and VAT or sales tax may still apply. Check with a customs broker or the shipper.
- Insurance in transit. Confirm who insures the work until it reaches you.
- Currency. Galleries may invoice in rand, reais, won or euros. Know the exchange rate and any card or wire fees.
Use the fairs
Several of these galleries bring their artists to Frieze, Art Basel and other international fairs. Seeing the work at a fair is a low-pressure way to judge it in person and meet the gallery before you commit. Our art fair survival guide covers how to plan a fair visit.
Check the paperwork
Ask for an invoice that names the artist, title, date, medium and dimensions, and for a certificate of authenticity or the gallery's equivalent. For installations or works with electronics, ask for installation instructions too. Our online buying guide covers what good documentation looks like when you can't inspect the work first.
Be patient
Prices for emerging artists can rise quickly after a first show in New York or London, and the most wanted works often go to collectors the gallery already knows. If you miss a show, ask to be told about the next one. Following an artist for a year before you buy is time well spent: you see whether the work keeps developing, and the gallery gets to know you.
A Note on Why Regions Matter
Grouping artists by region isn't about novelty. An artist's home gallery usually knows the work best, holds the deepest inventory, and sets the prices that later galleries build on. Buying through that gallery supports the people who backed the artist first. Many of the artists here also root their work in a specific place, such as Sepedi ritual for Mashilo or Rio's street architecture for Camíz, so knowing the context makes the work richer to live with.
Where to Go Next
- For nine more artists grouped by medium, see Emerging Artists to Watch: 9 Painters, Fiber Artists and Ceramicists You Can Still Collect.
- For a method you can use on your own, read our guide to spotting emerging artists.
- To understand how studio practice shapes the finished work, see our look at how contemporary painters work in the studio.
Every fact on this page is linked to its source and was checked on October 5, 2026. Exhibition dates and gallery relationships change, so check with the gallery before you travel to a show.