The Best of 2023: According to 6 Painters Who Defined It

Ocula, 22 December 2023
 
What is a typical day in the studio? Which soundtracks keep you painting? Ocula Advisors had the pleasure of sitting down with the painters behind some of this year's most talked about art world fixtures.

 

Joseph Yaeger was first off the block with his knock-out painting show at The Perimeter in London back in January. Nicolas Party followed with a run of exhibitions that saw him transform the modernist white box into his fantastical realms at galleries and museums around the world. And now, in a pocket of northern England that inspired the landscape paintings of both Party and David Hockney is Andrew Cranston's exceptional show at The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire.

 

Ocula's advisors catch up with six painters to find out the sounds, exhibitions, restaurants, and trips that have topped their year.

 

Li Hei Di

Kicking off 2023 was the news that the young Chinese painter and Royal College of Art graduate joined Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in London. The announcement followed a busy run for the London-based artist who was included in Gagosian's group exhibition Uncanny Valley in Hong Kong; a U.S. solo debut with Michael Kohn Gallery, Los Angeles; and her first solo show with Pippy in 2024.

 

Li Hei Di in her London studio. Images

Li Hei Di in her London studio. Images courtesy of the artist and Michael Kohn Gallery. Photography by Kai Shui.
 

Best Sounds: My recent favourite is 'MARTEDÌ' (2021) by BLUEM.

 

Best Exhibition: Miriam Cahn at Palais de Tokyo, Paris.

 

Best Restaurant: Kolapata near Whitechapel—a great Bangladeshi restaurant with super reasonable prices!

 

Best Trip: A six-hour hike in Isle of Arran, on the east coast of Scotland, partially in the rain.

 

Best Christmas: I love every Chinese New Year when my friends take the responsibility of making dumplings and I can just lie down, do nothing, and eat.

 

Best Quote: 'The limitations of censorship is something I've always found funny. As a teenager at school, I remember wanting to paint naked figures but feeling restricted when I knew my parents would ask to see what I've been working on. Instead, I learned to paint a small section of the painting with something sexual.'—Li Hei Di in the Studio.