Ever wondered what other people are buying for their personal art collections? While your tastes may differ, seeing what others are buying can help you discover new artists whose works you might not have considered.
Below, meet 6 artists — three established and three emerging — who have proven to be our collectors' favorites. For more ideas, search our new jobs and get in touch with our team so we can help you find jobs similar to your budget.
José de Guimarães
Known by the name of the city where he was born, José de Guimarães (1939) is a figure of Portuguese art, who explored various areas from the visual arts, through geology, engineering to archaeology. Travels to Africa, Asia and South America marked his career by stimulating and developing an aesthetic language. At the end of the 1970s, he built an alphabet based on the forms and symbols of African culture, introducing this in his works. In the 1980s, he began to explore the boundaries between painting and sculpture, with pieces produced with unconventional materials - fiberglass and paper specifically made by the artist himself. With strong and cheerful colors, his works are characterized by the intersection of themes between animal and human, mineral and vegetable. For decades the Portuguese artist has collected African, pre-Columbian and ancient Chinese art that is currently on display at the CIAJG - Centro Internacional de Artes José de Guimarães.
Júlio Pomar
In constant movement and creation, Júlio Pomar (1926-2018) is one of the most renowned Portuguese artists of the 20th century. During his long creative journey, he addressed issues and themes in his works, such as: protest, eroticism, fado, bullfighting, literature, mythology, the Xingu Indians of Brazil, D. Quixote, portraits and animals. Belonging to the third generation of modernists, Júlio Pomar is an artist whose works range from neo-realism to expressionism, passing through abstractionism. He produced mainly paintings and drawings, but he also carried out works of engraving, sculpture, illustration, ceramics, glass, tapestry, collages, theater scenography and wall decoration in tile. In the last years of his life, he also devoted himself to poetry and music.
Vhils
One of the main artists of the movement of urban art (street art), Alexandre Farto (1987), better known as Vhils, continues to evolve and boost his style by sculpting the large-scale faces of anonymous figures in order to reveal the hidden underlayers and fragility of urban space. He appeared on the art scene in 2008, creating a revolution, through his innovative artistic practice, in which destruction is a form of construction. Vhils he became an international phenomenon, mainly for his mural works in the public space, honoring José Saramago, Zeca Afonso, among others. The space where he grew up, Seixal, an industrialized suburb on the other side of the river from Lisbon (Portugal), profoundly influenced his practice due to the changes brought about by intense urban development in the 1980s and 1990s. Bordalo II, Banksy and Jean-Michel Basquiat, it was in the streets that the basis for his initial artistic production was formed, eventually projecting his perceptions of the outside world through his creative acts. He often carves faces in public spaces - on the sides of buildings - with a variety of tools and materials that can leave a mark or remove materials, including hammers, drills, etching acid, bleach and explosives. In addition to mural sculpture, he has also been exploring other media such as serigraphy, installation, nfts and other supports, such as advertising posters, wooden doors and metal plates that he collects from the streets. works of Vhils like “Open Walls Baltimore 1”, “POW! WOW! Hawaii 2014 - King Lunalilo Mural” and “Dusk” reflect current themes in the art scene, such as identity, representation, ephemerality and the individual's experience in consumer society.
Joana Duarte
The compositions of Joana Duarte (Vila Franca de Xira, 1999) describe the essential lines of painting: color, shape, texture and movement. In his works with great abstract influences, few elements with undefined limits are used that create interesting chromatic relationships of great subtlety. The stains of color present in his painting offer the viewer a door to raw emotions and the immaterial, preferentially exploring the tactile qualities and sensitive effects of color. Since he was a child he was interested in the world of fine arts, and when he reached secondary school he attended the António Arroio Art School in Lisbon, training in artistic production. Subsequently, he graduated in painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon. He is currently taking a postgraduate degree in art curation at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. At the same time, he works as a freelance artist and exhibits his work in group and individual exhibitions, especially the exhibition Prêmio Paula Rego 2018 and the 2020 Almada Drawing Biennial.
Rorig Mirtos
Each sculpture is a unique work, handmade, without molds and impossible to reproduce.Each piece of wood was recycled, most of it being urban waste, so it is sometimes not possible to identify its species. However, pine is the most commonly used. Dimensions and weights are approximate and include bases.
Ana Pais Oliveira
Ana Pais Oliveira (1982, Vila Nova de Gaia) lives and works in Espinho. She has a degree in Fine Arts – Painting from the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto (2005) and a PhD student in Art and Design – Painting from the same faculty (2015), with the project A cor entre o pictorial space e o Espaço Architectural: processes relations in contemporary artistic practices. Obtained the Merit Certificate for having obtained the best classification of the 3rd Cycle Course in Art and Design, in the academic year 2015/2016. He is an artist-in-residence at FACE – Fórum de Arte e Cultura de Espinho, where he has his atelier and collaborates in several initiatives, since April 2016. Society and integrated the research project Conceptual Basis of Research in Painting (2014-2019). She received a scholarship from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) between 2011 and 2015. She is also a member of the AIC Study Group on Environmental Color Design and of APcor – Associação Portuguesa da Cor. She was part of the Portuguese selection for the Young European Creation Biennial 2013/2015, touring nine European countries, was selected for the XV Call for the Luis Adelantado Gallery in Valencia (2013) and won the Kunstpreis Young Art Award <33 [colour] from the Galeria Art Forum Ute Barth in Zurich, Switzerland, where she exhibited individually in the summer of 2014. She was also selected for the longlist of the Solo Award 2016 / London Art Fair 2017, promoted by Wilson Williams Contemporary Art Gallery, London, for the Focus Foundation Painting Award -Abengoa 2017, Seville and for the longlist of the well-known Jackson's Painting Prize 2021 (400 out of 8674 applications worldwide). His painting Outdoors #2 was selected for print and presentation at the Munsell Centennial Color Symposium at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston (June 10-15, 2018) and in the special issue of the Journal Color Research and Applications. She was also invited by the Desistart group to design a luxury rug collection, Perspectives Collection, which was presented for the first time at Maison & Objet 2019 in Paris and at The Hotel Show Dubai at the Dubai World Trade Centre, May 2021. She was invited by Vinha Boutique Hotel, a luxury hotel in Porto, to do a site specific work measuring 200x500cm, installed in its main lobby.
Won 1st Prize at the XLIX International Painting Competition Homenaje a Rafael Zabaleta, Quesada, Jaén, Spain. Won the Acquisition of Friends of the Amarante Library-Museum Award in the 9th Edition of the Award Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (2013), the 1st Prize Aveiro Young Creator (2009), the 1st Prize Engenho e Arte (2009), the 3rd Prize in the 1st Young Prize for Plastic Arts of Figueira da Foz (2009), the 1st Prize Arte XXI 10 (2009) ) and the 1st Prize Eixo Atlântico at the VIII Bienal Eixo Atlântico do Noroeste Peninsular (2008), among other prizes and honorable mentions in painting and plastic arts. He has exhibited individually and collectively since 2003, in Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Brazil, Holland, Lithuania and Hungary.
He regularly participates in conferences and seminars, having recently presented his work at conferences in Genoa, Newcastle, Valencia, Lisbon, Monção and Porto. He was a member of the jury for the IX Bienal Eixo Atlântico do Noroeste Peninsular (2010), for the XXI International Meeting of Living Statues, Espinho (2017), for the Short Animation and Experimental Film section of FEST – New Directors, New Films Festival, Espinho, 2018 and of a master's exam at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Porto. She was invited to curate two group exhibitions as part of the program of the 6th International Art Biennial of Espinho: Show me your face, at Centro Multimeios de Espinho e Paperwork, at Galeria da Junta de Freguesia de Espinho (April 2021).
His work is represented in the collections S&A, Porto, Museu Zabaleta, Quesada (Jaén, Spain), Fundação Focus-Abengoa (Seville), Banco BPI, Eixo Atlântico, Casa da Cultura/Casa Barbot, Municipal Museum of Espinho, Municipal Museum of Amarante and several private collections.
