The art world is constantly hungry for fresh perspectives and new voices. To identify who might be the next name worth knowing, we asked four curators and four art advisors from around the world to each pick one artist they believe is poised to break out in 2026. Fittingly, the artists they have selected address some of the most urgent topics of our time, from migration and diasporic identity, to science, technology, and our evolving relationship with the environment. As we navigate the uncertainties awaiting us in the coming year, these artists can offer particularly creative insights.

Bagus Pandega (b. 1985)

Bagus Pandega, Sumber Alam, Ausstellungsansicht, Kunsthalle Basel (2025). Photo: Philipp Hänger / Kunsthalle Basel.

Indonesian artist Bagus Pandega’s elaborate, modular, kinetic, and plant-based installations have caught the eye of Ulrich Schrauth, a curator focusing on the intersection between art and technology. He first encountered Pandega’s work when looking for projects for the 2025 edition of VRHAM! Digital and Immersive Art Biennale in Hamburg, which Schrauth founded. “I’m struck by how these remarkable installations function as living, breathing ecosystems, while offering a nuanced dialogue between materiality, techno-optimism and ecological fragility,” the curator noted.

The Jakarta-born, Bandung-based artist studied sculpture and earned his MFA from Bandung Institute of Technology in Indonesia in 2015, and his practice has built momentum over the past year, Schrauth said. The artist held his first institutional solo show in Europe this summer at Kunsthalle Basel, followed by a solo exhibition at Swiss Institute in New York, on view through January 4. He was also featured in a solo presentation at Art Basel’s Statements sector in June, presented by ROH, a contemporary art gallery in Jakarta.

Schrauth predicted that Pandega’s artistic career will continue to grow in 2026. “His practice bridges urgent institutional themes like ecologies and material politics with a striking technological perspective that museums and galleries are increasingly eager to foreground,” the curator said. In 2026, Pandega will be featured in a duo solo show at Singapore Art Museum in January, followed by a duo solo at Japan’s Naoshima New Museum of Art in June, as well as solo shows at Sogetsu Art Foundation in Tokyo and ROH next autumn.

Max Hooper Schneider (b. 1982)

Max Hooper Schneider, Falling Angel (2023). Photo: Paul Salveson, courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles, New York.

The Hayward Gallery’s senior curator Yung Ma first encountered Max Hooper Schneider’s “aquarium-like works,” which contain both organic and artificial materials, nearly a decade ago. “I have been intrigued by these fascinating mini-ecosystems,” Ma said, comparing the artist’s “visually stimulating yet calamitous creations” to miniature stage sets.

But there is even more beneath the surface of these unique aesthetics. The “explicit science fiction quality” of Hooper Schneider’s works, Ma noted, evoke a dystopian future echoed in film classics such as Blade Runner and Akira, and yet they are “ambiguous enough for us to imagine something new or hopeful will follow.”

Hooper Schneider’s cross-disciplinary approach, which fuses art, science, and tech, is greatly informed by his unique background. The Los Angeles-born and -based artist obtained a master degree in landscape architecture at Harvard Graduate School of Design, and prior to that, he studied urban design, biology, as well as marine biology and entomology. He has been widely exhibited around the world, most recently in the solo show “Scavenger” at New York’s 125 Newbury gallery, which opened this fall.

More importantly, his work speaks to the times in which we live, according to Ma. “On an emotional level, his work perfectly captures our current and collective state of anxiety, rendering an uncertain present that is yet to be scripted,” the curator said. The artist already has a series of projects and exhibitions lined-up for 2026, including a permanent installation commissioned by the Stuart Collection in San Diego and an exhibition at Museo Moderno in Buenos Aires.

Nathanaëlle Herbelin (b. 1989) 

Nathanaëlle Herbelin, Le dîner aux absents (2023). Courtesy of the artist and Xavier Hufkens.

New York-based art advisor Adam Green first came across Nathanaëlle Herbelin’s work in 2023, in gallery group shows at Perrotin, Grimm, and Michael Werner; he learned more about the artist’s practice from her solo show with Xavier Hufkens later that year.

Born in Tel Aviv to a French father and an Israeli mother, Herbelin has been based in Paris since 2011, earning an MFA from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 2016. Her intimate paintings reflect an identity that sits between two cultures.

“I’m drawn to how Nathanaëlle captures an emotional honesty in her portraits that stays with you,” Green said. “It reminds me of the way Alice Neel could reveal the inner life of her subjects. Nathanaëlle achieves that same sense of intimacy and depth, but in a language that feels entirely her own.”

In 2025, Herbelin had a solo exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and He Art Museum in Shunde, China. Her work has been acquired by private and public collections, including the Pinault Collection, the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. Green said Herbelin’s career will continue its upward trajectory with an exhibition at the MICAS (Malta International Contemporary Art Space) in 2026, and other yet-to-be announced museum shows.

“Herbelin’s work is only beginning to gain recognition among collectors globally,” noted Green, adding that her 2026 exhibitions will “further establish her as one of the most compelling figurative painters working today.”

Eunjo Lee (b. 1996)

Still shot from Eunjo Lee’s Before The Shadow Taught The Sun (2025), the final part of the trilogy. Commissioned by Goldsmiths.

As Victoria and Albert Museum’s contemporary program curator, Carrie Chan constantly scouts for next-generation artists who explore new frontiers of the digital realm, and the work of Eunjo Lee quickly caught her eye.

Chan first came across the South Korea-born, London-based artist and filmmaker on Instagram, and was immediately drawn to “the way she creates a new world to explore ecological interconnectedness between human, nonhumans, objects, and nature.” Chan was impressed by the “new visual language” Lee creates using gaming software like Unreal Engine.

An MFA graduate of the Ruskin School of Art at the University of Oxford, and winner of the Mansfield-Ruddock Art Prize 2024, Lee had a fruitful 2025, with positive reviews of her institutional debut at Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art in March and solo presentation at Frieze London’s Focus section in October. Lee already has a list of projects lined-up for 2026, including a commission by curatorial agency Hervisions and a commission by the LAS Art Foundation in Berlin in collaboration with Google Arts and Culture Lab.

“While the work is purely digital, it offers a deeply emotional, poetic and meditative experience,” Chan said. “It would be interesting to know more about how Eunjo will further develop the interactive quality of her work, and explore the fusion of digital and physical dimensions.”

Anoushka Mirchandani (b. 1988)

Anoushka Mirchandani, By the Perequê-Áçu (2025). Courtesy of the artist and Jonathan Carver Moore Gallery.

South Asian art has been making waves in the art world this year. One name that caught the attention of the San Francisco-based art advisor Laura Smith Sweeney is Anoushka Mirchandani. The Indian-born, San Francisco-based Mirchandani examines the diasporic identity and experience as an Indian immigrant and a woman in her work, which has been featured in gallery exhibitions and art fairs in the U.S, India, Europe, and the Gulf region.

Sweeney came across the artist’s “magnetic” work last December, when Mirchandani took part in her two-month artist residency program at Jonathan Carver Moore Gallery. She was drawn to Mirchandani’s “striking use of color and line,” the layered process, and how she merges her figures into their surroundings, while tackling a complex subject matter. “The boundaries between body and these landscapes blur, creating scenes that feel intimate and dreamlike,” said Sweeney, an executive member of the Association of Professional Art Advisors. She was also impressed by the artist’s “clarity about her intentions, especially around the fragmented identity and emotional complexity of being an immigrant in the United States.”

Sweeney said Mirchandani is poised to have a big break in 2026. The artist is currently a resident of the competitive Silver Art Projects at the World Trade Center in New York, and her institutional solo debut at the ICA San José opens on January 16.

Masao Nakahara (b. 1956)

Masao Nakahara, One day in May (2024). Courtesy of the artist and Althuis Hofland Fine Arts.

“We have seen a considerable amount of interest in Japanese artists: ceramists, photographers, sculptors and painters,” said Amsterdam-based art advisor Marc-Jan Van Laake. He sets his eye on the Dusseldorf-based Japanese artist Masao Nakahara, after coming across his paintings at Althuis Hofland, a gallery based in Amsterdam. Born in Saitama, Japan, in 1956, Nakahara’s art journey began at the age of 10, when he joined a local art class.

He later graduated from a pharmaceutical university in Tokyo and studied oil painting at an art school, but he felt that the Japanese contemporary art scene, which was dominated by conceptual work at the time, did not welcome painting. He then pursued his art studies in Germany in 1981, first at Braunschweig University of Fine Arts and then Düsseldorf Art Academy, where he graduated. However, he soon started his own family, and worked as a translator, putting painting aside for 20 years.

Nakahara picked up painting again at the age of 60, and in 2021, he was invited by Yoshitomo Nara to take part in a group exhibition of Japanese artists at Kunsthalle Dûsseldorf. The artist, now represented by Althuis Hofland and London’s Pippy Houldsworth, has been featured in exhibitions and art fairs in London, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, and Miami in recent years.

“Masao Nakahara mixes a Surrealist, naïve, and childlike style with a color palette of some famous German Expressionists, that he surely must have picked up after moving to Dusseldorf,” said Laake, a member of the Association of Professional Art Advisors. “However his paintings and sculptures unmistakably remain Japanese in spirit. I would not be surprised if 2026 marks a (late) breakthrough.”

Dylan Chan (b. 1997) 

Dylan Chan, Uncanny Landscapes (till next time) (2025). Courtesy of the artist.

Singapore-based curator John Tung, who has been curator for S.E.A. Focus since 2023, has kept a close eye on the art development in Southeast Asia, which has been a cradle for next-generation artistic talent. Among them, Tung set his eye on Singaporean-born artist Dylan Chan, believing that he will grow “from emerging to essential” in the coming year.

A homegrown talent who works with photography and collage, Chan has won local awards and been nominated for regional prizes such as Sovereign Art Prize. Tung was initially drawn to Chan’s practice, which deals with “domesticity, safety, security, and interpersonal relationships” that feel universal. He was impressed by the artist’s choice of medium, such as the meranti hardwood, a material typical of flooring in Southeast Asian homes. His recent Singapore group show at Objectifs, a solo show at Islands, and a Bangkok residency with SAC Gallery, point to the momentum his career will carry into 2026, the curator said. He will also show at Art SG with JW Projects and be featured in a group show at Mizuma Gallery in Singapore next summer.

Dylan does not approach “Southeast Asia” as a theme to be illustrated in his work; “rather, his artistic language emerges from the lived textures of these cities,” Tung said. He added that Chan’s work connects with bigger issues in the region such as “rapid urbanization, the entanglement between privacy and proximity, and the emotional residue of spaces built for utility yet saturated with memory.”

Sarah Martin-Nuss (b. 1992)

Sarah Martin-Nuss, Catalyst (2025). Courtesy of the artist and Uffner and Liu.

Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, Sarah Martin-Nuss is an interdisciplinary artist who works across a range of media, from painting to performance and sound. A 2024 graduate from Pratt Institute, with an MFA in painting and drawing, Martin-Nuss had her first solo exhibition “Open Systems” at Prince and Wooster in New York in 2023. It was followed by solo show “Future Currents” at Uffner and Liu in New York last spring, and that was where the Los Angeles-based art advisor Cardiff Loy discovered her work.

Loy, an executive member of the Association of Professional Art Advisors, was impressed by her landscape-based works explore themes of interconnectivity and the passage of time. They are “in compositions that show a unique and rhythmic type of mark-making,” she noted. “The paintings’ very layered surfaces employ shifts in texture and color that catch the light in surprising ways. Her brushstrokes seem to pulse and create a unique ebb and flow across the canvas which activate the surface in a special light.”

Recent market trajectory has boosted Loy’s confidence in the artist’s career. For one, the inclusion of her work in Pace’s group show “Land Marks” in L.A. was a recognition, she noted. The growing influence of women in the art market, especially with women collectors championing works by women artists, is promising for artists like Martin-Nuss. “Her work presents a compelling entry point for this growing group of collectors,” Loy noted.