Defining the next generation of Asian artists is no easy task – their work sprawls across mediums, borders, and cultural references, resisting any single label or movement. But a growing consensus is forming around the names that matter: the ones leaving a mark that cannot be ignored. Whether you follow the art world closely or simply know what moves you, these are the creators worth knowing – for their vision, their craft, and the urgency of what they are making right now.
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INAE
INAE is making waves in the South Korean contemporary art scene – and the world is starting to pay attention. Her large-scale abstract works, constructed from painstaking accumulations of hand-painted dots in gold leaf, oil, and acrylic, have graced the walls of Seoul’s PBG Gallery, London’s Maddox and Saatchi, and Art Central Hong Kong. One of her signature motifs – a burst of fireworks distilled entirely in shimmering dots – has become something of a calling card. Her technique of marrying Eastern materials with Western abstraction, executed with a precise command of scale and subtlety, has positioned her as one of the most compelling Asian artists to watch right now.
Learn more about INAE.
Raghav Babbar
Perhaps the most arrestingly present of India’s emerging painters, Raghav Babbar builds his thickly impasted oil portraits layer by patient layer – faint outlines giving way to soul-baring compositions that capture the beauty and diversity of ordinary lives, from family and friends to coal sellers and film-inspired characters. His fusion of Indian heritage with mid-century British technique has earned him a Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 spot and broken auction records with a momentum that shows no sign of slowing. But what makes Babbar truly essential is his Vermeer-like gaze on Gen Z India – a quality that has drawn institutions from ICA Miami and the Institute of Contemporary Art Singapore to Larsen Warner Gallery in Stockholm, and positioned him as one of the most vital artistic voices of his generation.
Learn more about Raghav Babbar.
Steph Huang
Steph Huang is one of the most remarkable multidisciplinary artists working today. A leading voice in the conversation around colonialism, global trade, and environmental fallout – which she approaches not through polemic but through the disarming poetry of everyday objects – Huang’s transformation of jam jars, cans, and glass bottles into minimalist installations has built a practice that is both intellectually meticulous and visually unexpected. Winner of the 2023 Mark Tanner Sculpture Award and the 2022 Taipei Art Awards Grand Prize, with exhibitions at Tate Britain, Perrotin Tokyo, and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, her ability to unpack the absurdities of modern labour and belonging continues to echo across major institutions worldwide.
Learn more about Steph Huang.
Yukimasa Ida
Yukimasa Ida is arguably one of the most vital Japanese painters of his generation – a gestural force shaped equally by his prefecture’s coastal wilds and the Zen philosophy of ichi-go ichi-e, the belief that every moment occurs only once. Dragging oil, spatulas, and bare hands across canvas, he occupies a restless space between figuration and abstraction, his portraits and landscapes swirling with vibrance and controlled chaos. A Forbes 30 Under 30 Japan honoree who has exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the National Museum of Norway, and galleries from Paris to Hong Kong, what makes Ida essential is his insistence on transience as subject — the sense that every mark made is also, irrevocably, a mark disappearing.
Learn more about Yukimasa Ida.
Ronghui Chen
Remarkably, Ronghui Chen does what few documentary photographers manage – he makes time feel physical. Splitting his practice between Shanghai and New Haven, Chen has spent years embedding himself in China’s urbanising margins, producing long-term bodies of work like Freezing Land – large-format portraits of youth adrift in snowbound rust-belt towns and surreal Christmas factories – and Land of Ambitions, a probing examination of industrialisation’s human toll rendered with cool, unflinching clarity. A Three Shadows Photography Award and Hou Dengke Documentary Award winner with solo exhibitions at Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, the ICP Museum, and Shanghai’s Modern Art Base, Chen’s work is distinguished by his ability to merge journalistic acuity with artistic commitment – staying long enough, and looking hard enough, that his subjects reveal themselves completely.
Learn more about Ronghui Chen.
Naraphat Sakarthornsap
One of the most distinctive voices in Thai contemporary art, Bangkok-based Naraphat Sakarthornsap works across photography and installation to expose social inequality and gender discrimination – using flowers as loaded stand-ins for hidden truths, beauty masking pain, and societal standards that wilt under scrutiny. He is particularly recognised for the restraint of his floral works, in which fragile blooms become pointed political critiques that carry cultural weight – challenging viewers, in every petal and shadow, to question what they think they see.
Learn more about Naraphat Sakarthornsap.
Xu Yang
Shandong-born Xu Yang is a multi-disciplinary force: a painter (life-sized self-portraits shortlisted for the Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer Portrait Award), a performer (modelling her own corsets and Rococo wigs as living composition), and a queer-feminist provocateur dismantling the male gaze one lavish canvas at a time. Working primarily in oil, her subjects range from regal self-portraiture to cakes, teacups, and crowned pets – all rendered with a theatricality that draws as intensely from drag culture as it does from art history. Her work has lit up the National Portrait Gallery in London, Beijing’s Soul Art Centre, and Greece’s Dio Horia Gallery, with each exhibition deepening her standing as an artist who doesn’t simply engage with the Western canon – she pulls it apart and rebuilds it on her own terms.
Learn more about Xu Yang.
Mulgil Kim
Captivating art lovers across the globe, South Korean artist Mulgil Kim is recognised for her lush, dreamlike landscapes – building soft greens and glowing skies into emotional worlds that blur the boundaries between minimalism, fantasy, and memory. Her devotion to the natural world found its fullest expression in her Art Road project, a transformative 673-day solo journey across 46 countries, and her work has since been acknowledged by Korea’s National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art as a soulful reflection on the irreplaceable beauty of the world we inhabit.
Learn more about Mulgil Kim.
Born in Korea and raised in Hong Kong, Min Ji has combined her degree in anthropology and creative writing with her passion for going on unsolicited tangents as an editor at Friday Club. In between watching an endless amount of movies, she enjoys trying new cocktails and pastas while occasionally snapping a few pictures.
