Visual artists are people who paint, draw, sculpt, photograph, or otherwise create art that communicates through visual form rather than through performance or writing.
A visual artist is a creator who harnesses diverse mediums, including painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, digital art, and mixed media, to craft works that convey ideas, emotions, and narratives. They manipulate form, color, texture, and composition to engage audiences, often imparting cultural, social, or personal significance. Importantly, visual artistry is defined not only by technical skills but also by the artist's vision and perspective.
The 20th century marked a radical transformation in how artists were defined. Movements like Cubism (Picasso, Braque) and Abstract Expressionism (Pollock, Rothko) rejected Renaissance norms of perspective and representation. Artists like Salvador Dali and Marcel Duchamp expanded art into dreamscapes and ideas, challenging the notion that art must be beautiful or tangible. Figures such as Andy Warhol blurred boundaries between fine art and commercial imagery, redefining artists as cultural commentators. With globalization and diversity, the definition of an artist broadened to include voices from non-Western traditions, women, and marginalized groups, reflecting modern social upheavals and technological change. In short, the 20th century shifted the artist's role from skilled craftsperson to innovator, provocateur, and cultural critic.
Five famous artists in each of the categories of visual art would include: painting (Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Claude Monet), sculpture (Michelangelo, Auguste Rodin, Donatello, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and Constantin Brâncuși), photography (Ansel Adams, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, Richard Avedon, and Annie Leibovitz), architecture (Frank Lloyd Wright, Antoni Gaudi, Le Corbusier, Zaha Hadid, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe), and printmaking (Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt van Rijn, Francisco Goya, Pablo Picasso, and Andy Warhol).
Visual artists embody the human drive to communicate through images. From the Renaissance masters to 20th-century innovators, their definitions have expanded alongside cultural and technological revolutions. Today, the term "visual artist" encompasses not only painters and sculptors, but also photographers, architects, and printmakers.
The 21st century has further broadened what it means to be a visual artist. Artists now use software, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality as creative tools. Digital canvases and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have become legitimate art forms. Street and public might also be included, as figures like Banksy highlight how art can be anonymous, political, and accessible outside of galleries. Many artists blend installation, performance, and visual media, erasing boundaries between categories.
Famous contemporary visual artists might include: digital/new media (Refik Anadol, Beeple, Cory Arcangel, Casey Reas, and Manfred Mohr), street art (Banksy, Shepard Fairy, JR, Lady Pink, and Os Gemeos), contemporary painting (Yayoi Kusama, Gerhard Richter, Damien Hirst, Cecily Brown, and Kerry James Marshall), installation/conceptual art (Ai Weiwei, Eliasson, Marina Abramović, Tracey Emin, and Doris Salcedo), and contemporary photography (Cindy Sherman, Andreas Gursky, Nan Goldin, Sebastião Salgado, and Thomas Struth).
The definition of a visual artist has never been static. In the 20th century, artist challenged tradition with abstraction, surrealism, and pop culture. In the 21st century, they've embraced digital tools, public spaces, and global diversity, proving that visual art is as much about ideas and accessibility as it is about technique.
Recommended Resources
Aleksandr Fayvisovich is a New York-based contemporary realist artist whose website showcases his figurative, landscape, still life, and graphic work, including galleries, an introduction to his work, contact details, and a form that can be used to request updates. His work is presented under the banner "Painting & Graphics," emphasizing contemporary realism across several genres (figurative art, landscapes, still life, and graphic art). Links to related websites are included.
https://aleksandrfayvisovich.com/
ARS is a New York-based organization that handles copyright, licensing, and rights monitoring for visual artists and estates, museums, publishers, brands, and media producers. The ARS website includes sections for licensing requests, membership information, projects, news, and contact details, and is the primary place to submit permissions or inquire about image use. Information on obtain or accessing its services is provided, along with membership details.
https://arsny.com/
Built around auction records and pricing data for artworks and artists, askART is an online art market research service that provides auction records, artist biographies, signatures, sales graphs, and alert tools. The subscription service offers tools to find, view, and price art, and to track upcoming auctions and recent sales. Its database covers millions of auction lots and includes records going back to 1987, plus artist signatures, and other artist research services.
https://www.askart.com/
Belinda Eaton is a British artist who works in "magic realism," creating vivid acrylic paintings and portraits that combine vivid color, lively characters, and fluid, boundary-defying compositions in acrylic on canvas. Her website showcases original paintings, giclée prints, greeting cards, postcards, and contact information. Included is a portfolio of original paintings, reproduction options, and contact details for inquiries about purchases or commissions.
https://www.belindaeaton.com/
Chicago Alliance of Visual Artists
CAVA is a volunteer, not-for-profit organization founded in 1988 that serves artists aged fifty and older in the Chicago area, offering exhibitions, programs, and member services. It currently supports over 300 members and presents multiple juried and members' shows each year. An overview of the organization, membership benefits and information, an introduction to its volunteer board, a schedule of upcoming exhibitions and events, and contact details are provided.
https://www.wearecava.org/
The award-winning contemporary Scottish artist (Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts, aka RSW/RGI) showcases his paintings, mixed-media works, prints, news, and contact details on his website, which also enforces strict copyright and no-AI training use of images. A gallery of images highlights recent paintings and mixed-media assemblages, and the artist's practice and gallery pages offer browsing of works.
https://christopherwood.co.uk/
Born in 1975, Dion Archibald is a contemporary figurative painter based in Maitland, New South Wales, Australia. His practice spans painting, drawing, and photography, for which he has been recognized in regional exhibitions and awards in Australia. His website showcases his paintings, drawings, and occasional blog posts, along with a link to a Shutterstock stock photo portfolio. On his site, he publishes new paintings, mixed-media drawings, and short artist notes.
http://www.dionarchibald.com/
Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, The
Online since 1994, this collection features drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, including studies of anatomy, machines, landscapes, and compositions, along with high-quality reproductions and scholarship from several reliable online collections and digitized books. Digitized representations of several of his drawings are featured, along with a title, brief description, or date, but no additional content. Links to other Leonardo da Vinci sites are included at the bottom.
http://www.drawingsofleonardo.org/
Representing the art and storytelling practice of Lynn Fellman, who creates fine art, books, videos, and educational work about genomes and evolutionary biology. The website showcases prints and portraits, along with contact details for inquiries about commissions and collaborations. Lynn Fellman describes herself as a "Rebel Artist for Science" who uses art and story to explain genome and evolutionary science and to inspire public engagement with research.
https://fellmanstudio.com/
Maintained by Robert Winton, Holiday Art specializes in impressionism, described as a natural and expressive approach that centers on impressions of light and atmosphere. Every painting is hand-painted and signed by the artist, who paints in acrylic paint on canvas, and every art print on the website is a silver halide photograph of the original painting. This process uses a light beam to form an image inside silver halide paper. The process is described, and purchases may be made online.
https://holidayart.com/
Judith Segall is a Judaic artist who specializes in hand-made paper bas-relief and custom Judaic gift art, including framed Torah-scroll invitation presentations, many of which are featured on her website and in galleries and auctions. The site presents the artist as a maker of Judaic art and personalized celebration gifts, with a specialty in mounting Bar and Bat Mitzvah and wedding invitations as art on a Torah cross motif inside shadow boxes, described as family heirlooms and art.
http://www.judithsegall.com/
The official website and digital portfolio of Kim Emerson, a mosaic artist who operates a professional art studio in Normal Heights, San Diego. Trained in architectural history and historic preservation, Kim began working with mosaics in the early 1990s after collaborating with artist James Hubbell on community projects in the San Diego and Tijuana region. Her mosaics often integrate with architecture and landscape, moving across floors, walls, and outdoor spaces.
http://kimemersonmosaics.com/
The online home of Latham Wildlife Art, a family of internationally exhibited wildlife artists (Karen, Rebecca, and Bonnie Latham), who specialize in finely detailed watercolors and miniature wildlife paintings. The website includes artist galleries, biographies, and a store for original artwork and prints. The website functions as both a portfolio and a storefront, showcasing each artist's recent pieces and exhibition activities. Biographical pieces explain each artist's background and awards.
https://lathamstudios.com/
Operating under Studio Lejeune LLC, founded by Lori Lejeune, a contemporary mixed-media artist who is best known for her constellation-style wall installations and the Flight series. Through her website, she offers originals, commissions, and installations through her website. Her practice blends digital design with traditional fine-art techniques, and markets both small works and large, site-specific installations through her studio website and gallery partners.
https://studiolejeune.com/
Born in Hilversum, Netherlands, in 1957, Leestemaker was raised in Nuenen and emigrated to the United States in 1990, where he worked full-time as a painter until his death on May 18, 2012. He came from a family of painters, as his grandfather and great-grandfather were artists. The Dutch-born American abstract expressionist is known for luminous, layered abstracted landscapes and mixed-media techniques, and he exhibited widely across the United States and Europe.
https://www.lucleestemaker.com/
The official M.C. Escher website hosts a curated online gallery of Escher's lifetime work, including a shop for licensed products, information about the M.C. Escher Foundation, and licensing. Maintained by the M.C. Escher Company and the Foundation, the website is the official presence for Maurits Cornelis Escher (1898-1972), and presents biographical material, news about exhibitions, and a digital gallery that lets visitors browse many of Escher's prints and transformation works.
https://mcescher.com/
Born in Nebraska in 1966, Matt Sesow is a self-taught American painter based in Washington, D.C., known for bold, emotionally charged, expressionist works that draw on a childhood trauma and a late start in art, turning to painting in the mid-1990s and beginning to sell work in 1995, becoming a full-time painter in the early 2000s. His work is raw, expressionistic, and figurative, often using vivid color, simplified forms, and recurring motifs, such as bulls, birds, and symbolic human figures.
http://www.sesow.com/
Artist Paul Cava founded the long-running Philadelphia gallery and archive, specializing in vintage, modern, and contemporary photography and photo-based art. The gallery also showcases his own multi-media work and maintains connections to significant public collections. The gallery has presented 19th-, 20th-, and contemporary photographs for over 40 years and maintains an eclectic inventory that ranges from vintage prints to contemporary photo-based works, functioning as a gallery and archive.
https://paulcava.com/
Reflectorart is the personal art site of Richard C. Elliott and Jane Orleman, showcasing reflective light paintings, outdoor folk-art installations called "Dick & Jane's Spot," and public mural work rooted in reflective materials and symbolic narrative imagery. The index (home) page frames the site as "Art for the heart, from the heart, in the heart of Washington," and highlights studio work and an outdoor art environment open to the public. Contact details are provided.
https://www.reflectorart.com/
Robert E. Fuller, Wildlife Artist
The British wildlife artist, filmmaker, and conservationist is known for highly detailed, lifelike paintings and immersive wildlife projects, including live nest cameras and a popular YouTube channel. His work and gallery are based in North Yorkshire, England. Born in 1972, Fuller grew up in Yorkshire and developed a strong connection to nature early in life. He paints in oils and acrylics, and sculpts in bronze, producing realistic portraits of British fauna that are sold internationally.
https://www.robertefuller.com/
Stacey Bernstein is a New York-based artist, arts and cultural worker, and retired art educator. Her website showcases galleries of mixed-media and found-object work, an extensive stitchery/embroidered series, and a resume, bio, and contact details. Key series include embroidery/stitchery from 2014 to the present, a sustained practice with recurring motifs and character-based pieces, each dated and with a short description, and her Queens Series (2012-2025).
https://www.staceyb.com/
Presenting itself as an artists management agency focused on photography and visual production, the creative management agency represents photographers and visual talent, with offices in London, New York, and Los Angeles. Its index (home) page showcases featured artists and production information, and lists recent editorial and commercial credits. Short highlights of recent work and clients of featured artists are presented along with production information and credits.
https://www.visualartists.com/
