10 ARTISTS WHO MASTER THE ART OF TEXTURE
10 Artists who master the art of texture.
In the ever-evolving world of contemporary art, texture has become a powerful tool that artists use to engage, provoke, and delight their audiences.
These ten artists have elevated the art of texture, creating works that are as much about what you feel as what you see. From the tactile allure of glass to the surprising softness, somewhat fluffiness, of gemstones, prepare to have your senses dazzled by these masters of texture.
TARA DONOVAN
Tara Donovan transforms mundane materials into extraordinary landscapes of texture. Whether she’s stacking plastic cups and transforming them into imposing monoliths or taking plastic straws (see pic) and creating these fluffy buds you just want to sink your hands into.
Donovan’s work is a masterclass in texture, taking a singular object and duplicating it, until it becomes a larger mass. Her installations invite viewers to engage not just with their eyes but with their entire sensory being, drawing you in closer to explore the complexity of simple forms.
JESSICA TSAI
No, that’s not a photograph of a Praying Mantis, look closer. Notice how the material captures the light, this my friend is glass. Hand made, hand-blown glass. The only title that does Jessica Tsai any justice is an Alchemist, a glass alchemist.
Her work needs to be seen to be believed, an illusionist of texture and light, sculpting molten forms into delicate yet sturdy sculptures. One quick look through her plethora of work, and you’ll find yourself irresistibly drawn to touch—just to see if it’s as soft as it looks, or as solid as it seems.
Kathleen Ryan’s art is all about juxtaposition, where beauty and decay are part and parcel of the same thing. Known for her oversized fruit sculptures that appear to be rotting, Ryan uses gemstones to create textures that defy expectation. Her “Bad Lemon” and “Mouldy Peach” sculptures are covered in glittering stones that mimic the fuzzy, moldy textures of decay, making you question what is real and what is mimicry. The textured quality of her work lures you in, daring you to run your fingers across what looks like decay but feels like luxury. You think your fingers will press into the rotting fruit flesh, but instead you’re met with the cold, hard gemstone surface.
Anila Quayyum Agha’s work is an intricate dance of light and shadow, where texture is created not just by the material but by the absence of it. Her installations, like “Intersections,” use laser-cut steel panels to cast intricate patterns of light and shadow across the room. The texture here is un-grabbable, you can’t feel it, only see it. Agha’s work redefines texture, making the empty spaces as important as the filled ones, and the lack of physical dimensions, the reality.
DIANA AL-HADID- THE ARCHITECHT OF DECAY
Diana Al-Hadid’s sculptures and installations blur the line between structure and disintegration. Her works often appear as though they are caught in a state of decay, with materials like plaster, metal, and fiberglass melting into each other to create richly textured surfaces. In pieces like “The Tower of Infinite Problems,” the texture is almost overwhelming, with layers upon layers of material creating a visual and tactile complexity that is both beautiful and unsettling. Al-Hadid’s work is a testament to the beauty found in the impermanent and the incomplete.
El Anatsui’s monumental tapestries made from thousands of pieces of reclaimed metal are a triumph of texture. His works, such as “Earth’s Skin,” ripple like fabric but are made of materials that are anything but soft. Each piece of metal, whether it’s a bottle cap or a scrap of tin, is twisted and tied into place, creating a rich, tactile surface that challenges perceptions of what textiles can be. Anatsui’s work is as much about the physical experience of texture as it is about the visual one.
Not recommended for those with arachnophobia, Chiharu Shiota’s installations are webs of texture that envelop and ensnare, like a bright red spider could pounce on you at any moment. Shiota uses red threads—sometimes thousands of them— to create immersive environments where the texture is both delicate and overwhelming. In works like “The Key in the Hand,” red threads weave through the space, suspended from the ceiling, creating a dense, tactile atmosphere that feels almost alive. The texture here is not just something to look at, but something to walk through, to be surrounded by… maybe even to get lost in.
Aiko Tezuka’s work unravels… literally. Tezuka uses textiles, often historical and traditional fabrics, and carefully unpicks them, allowing the threads to fall out of the original form. The resulting works, like “Certainty/Entropy,” are rich with texture, as the loose threads create a sense of movement and flow. Tezuka’s work invites viewers to consider the texture of history itself, as she deconstructs and reconstructs these fabrics, creating something new from the old, with a tactile quality that mimics the passage of time.
No, this isn’t AI generated or made on the computer, this is Rogan Brown’s intricate paper sculptures that mimic the textures of the natural world. Using a scalpel, Brown painstakingly cuts out delicate forms that resemble microscopic organisms, coral, or other organic structures. His work, such as “Mother cell 2,” is a study in the power of repetition and the textural possibilities of a single material. The layers upon layers of paper create a depth and richness that begs to be explored up close, with each cut adding a new dimension to the overall texture.
Nick Cave is a multidisciplinary artist known for his “Soundsuits,” which are wearable sculptures that blend performance, textile art, and social commentary. These suits are made from a variety of materials, including twigs, buttons, and synthetic hair, creating an intricate and highly tactile surface. The textures in Cave’s work are not just visually striking; they also play a role in the performative aspect of his art, where sound and movement are integral. Cave’s use of texture is both expressive and dynamic, making his art a powerful sensory experience.
These ten artists demonstrate that texture in art is not just a visual element but a sensory experience that engages, provokes, and delights. From the rough to the smooth, the soft to the hard, these masters of texture invite us to explore art in a way that transcends the purely visual, making us feel as much as we see. Whether through glass, metal, thread, or stone, they remind us that texture is at the heart of what makes art so compelling.
