Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.
Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.
The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.
Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.
Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.
Airplane in landscape - landscape painting
Located in New York, NY
This beautiful painting by Jeroen Allart is part of his minimalist landscape and animal painting he did in his home country the Netherlands. 'A farm stands before you on the horizon....
Canvas, Oil
"In a Round About Way", Figurative Painting of a Girl Dancing with Skeletons
By Mando Marie (seeyouthroughit)
Located in Philadelphia, PA
"In a Round About Way" is a one-of-a-kind original work by Amanda Marie (Mando), created using acrylic and aerosol on canvas. The piece measures 32.75”h x 21”w framed, and is shipped...
Canvas, Spray Paint, Acrylic
Bold - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Portrait, Africa, Modern Women
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (Issued by the Gal...
Canvas, Charcoal, Mixed Media, Acrylic
Learning to Live
By Jacob Burda
Located in Zofingen, AG
Learning to Live is a quiet reflection on the beauty that already surrounds us. So often we spend our lives chasing the next achievement, believing that happiness lies somewhere ahea...
Canvas, Acrylic
$600Sale Price|25% Off
Blue Bull Original Oil Painting on Canvas, Signed, 84x80 cm
Located in Bogotá, Bogotá
“Blue Bull II” is an original oil painting on canvas by Colombian artist Luis Xiua, whose work integrates figurative and abstract elements inspired by nature, symbolism, and Construc...
Cotton Canvas, Oil, Acrylic
In the Moment
Located in Zofingen, AG
Size: 95×95 cm (overall size with stretching 105×105 cm) Year: 2026 Materials: acrylic on canvas Shipping: rolled Series: Chill Out «In the Moment» This painting is about the simple ...
Canvas, Acrylic
Sea of Golden Light
Located in Zofingen, AG
Series: Sea Within — Journey Between Light and Silence. A glowing sea stretches toward the horizon, where golden light meets shimmering waves and distant cliffs. Filled with atmosphe...
Canvas, Acrylic
Chill Out
Located in Zofingen, AG
Size: 95×95 cm (overall size with stretching 105×105 cm) Year: 2026 Materials: acrylic on canvas Shipping: rolled This painting is about the importance of slowing down and allowing ...
Canvas, Acrylic
Arietta I - Abstract Line Drawing Pastel Blue Red Waves, 2026
Located in Kent, CT
In this contemporary drawing in pastel and graphite on BFK Rives paper, layered undulating lines investigate the properties of abstract curvilinear forms found in the localized condi...
Pastel, Archival Paper, Graphite
$2,120Sale Price|20% Off
Ancestral Throne - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative, Women, Fabrics
By Bakare Abubakri-sideeq Babatunde
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube. This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Bakare Babatund...
Fabric, Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil
$2,910
In My Heart, Contemporary Oil on Canvas Landscape Painting, Framed, 21st Century
Located in Nuenen, Noord Brabant
Sonja Brussen – In My Heart Oil on canvas 40 x 100 cm Framed in a white wooden frame Overall dimensions with frame: 42 x 102 cm Frame included in the price In My Heart is an orig...
Oil, Canvas
Every Body Is a Beach Body
Located in Zofingen, AG
Somewhere along the way, we started believing we had to earn summer. Earn the swimsuit. Earn the beach. Earn the right to relax. This painting disagrees. It reminds us that the sun d...
Canvas, Acrylic
Everyone Has Their Own Ocean
Located in Zofingen, AG
Size: 95×95 cm (overall size with stretching 105×105 cm) Year: 2026 Materials: acrylic on canvas Shipping: rolled “Everyone Has Their Own Ocean” is a work about the inner space that...
Canvas, Acrylic
$2,677
Minimalist Winter Tree, Limited-Edition Black-and-White Fine Art Landscape Print
Located in Vienna, Vienna
Archival pigment ink print, produced in a limited edition of 7 // Gallery ID: 26008 Fine art prints are produced to order on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Baryta. Each print is stamped on the...
Digital Pigment
$3,750Sale Price|25% Off
TURNING INTO STONE 3 surreal original oil/canvas Paula Craioveanu large 30x38in
Located in Forest Hills, NY
"Turning into Stone 3 " . Original, unique painting. oil on canvas, 30x38in. Shipped stretched ready for display in the US, and shipped rolled in a tube to Europe and to the rest of...
Canvas, Oil
$3,500Sale Price|30% Off
Lady with Books 2 original painting by Paula Craioveanu 39x23in FRAMED
Located in Forest Hills, NY
"Lady with Books 2", 39x23in / 100x60cm. Original painting. Shipped as it is, stretched, ready for hanging, framed. Framed size 41.5x25.7in. Free shipping with 1stDibs code This p...
Canvas, Acrylic
$1,480Sale Price|20% Off
Ephemeral Tides - 21st Century, Contemporary, Landscapes, Modern City, Oil
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Painting for me is an experience, where we learn every day and unlearn what we’ve learnt, and also as a portal to connect to the past, present & future. I was inspired to create thi...
Canvas, Oil
Green Curio Cabinet - Leucistic Anna’s Hummingbirds
Located in Burlingame, CA
Marie Cameron's new Curio Cabinet series places birds and teacups within curiosity cabinets filled with specimens, artifacts, collectibles, and kitsch, all woven together through nar...
Linen, Oil
Home Is Where the Soul Finds Peace
Located in Zofingen, AG
Size: 95×95 cm (overall size with stretching 105×105 cm) Year: 2026 Materials: acrylic on canvas Shipping: rolled Series: «Trust: In Space» A quiet space between feeling and memory. ...
Canvas, Acrylic
$2,095
Beneath the bougainvillea balcony Contemporary Architecture House Oil Painting
By Lilly Muth
Located in DE
Lilly Muth's architectural paintings transport viewers on a visual journey to a different world, where imagination knows no bounds and the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur...
Canvas, Oil
$2,280Sale Price|20% Off
Unspoken Bond - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Portrait, Modern Women
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist The...
Canvas, Charcoal, Mixed Media, Acrylic
Homekeepers Painting of Dogs Before Red House, 90x90 cm, New Condition
Located in Zofingen, AG
Home is not walls or shelter — it’s what quietly holds us when the world keeps moving. The dogs stand before the red house as if it were memory made visible. They are the keepers of ...
Canvas, Acrylic
$1,960Sale Price|20% Off
State of Mind 15 -21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Portrait, Women, Floral
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
The artist's expressive strokes, rendered with bold acrylics, bring to life a figurative portrait that speaks volumes about resilience and aspiration. The interplay of colors and tex...
Canvas, Acrylic
$890
Nine Skies, Geometric Interpretations Grid, Bauhaus Landscape Tiles, Color Field
Located in Barcelona, ES
“Nine Skies” by Natalia Roman is a contemporary geometric abstraction that evokes shifting atmospheres through a refined language of color and form. Organized in a rhythmic grid, eac...
Acrylic
Green Silence
By Jacob Burda
Located in Zofingen, AG
Green Silence Series: Birds Green Silence captures a solitary white heron standing quietly within a lush, dreamlike landscape of deep greens and reflected light. Emerging softly fro...
Canvas, Acrylic
Blue Silence
By Jacob Burda
Located in Zofingen, AG
Blue Silence Series: Birds Blue Silence captures a solitary pelican drifting quietly through a deep blue landscape suspended between water and shadow. Emerging from broad, expressiv...
Canvas, Acrylic
$2,910
To Leave or Stay: Contemporary Figurative Painting, Acrylic on Canvas
Located in Zofingen, AG
This sophisticated contemporary figurative painting examines the psychological atmosphere of civilian life during the war in Ukraine through a carefully orchestrated symbolic interio...
Lacquer, Cotton Canvas, Acrylic
$5,587
Au bord du jour, Contemporary Large Abstract landscape Oil Painting, 34 x 34 in
Located in LANGRUNE-SUR-MER, FR
Au bord du jour - Oil on canvas Unframed: 80 x 80 x 2 cm (31.50 x 31.50 x 0.79 in) Framed: 87 x 87 x 3.5 cm (34.25 x 34.25 x 1.38 in) Black or natural wood floater frame available Si...
Canvas, Oil
Drifting Between Light and Love - Contemporary Pool House Oil Painting
By Lilly Muth
Located in DE
Lilly Muth's architectural paintings transport viewers on a visual journey to a different world, where imagination knows no bounds and the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur...
Canvas, Oil
Bouquet of Daisies
Located in Zofingen, AG
Size: 100×70 cm (overall size with stretching 108×78 cm) Year: 2026 Materials: acrylic on canvas Shipping: Stretched, in reinforced cardboard packaging. A loosely gathered bouquet o...
Canvas, Acrylic
Bra Off, World Off
Located in Zofingen, AG
Bra Off, World Off is a celebration of one of life’s smallest and most satisfying rituals. That moment when the day is finally over, expectations loosen their grip, and there is nowh...
Canvas, Acrylic
Tender Presence I
Located in Zofingen, AG
Size: 95×95 cm (overall size with stretching 105×105 cm) Year: 2026 Materials: acrylic on canvas Shipping: rolled Series: Trust This work is part of my “Trust” series — an exploratio...
Canvas, Acrylic
$1,800
HONKY TONK Signed Lithograph, 1996, Black Musician Collage Portrait, Guitar
Located in Union City, NJ
HONKY TONK is an original hand drawn, limited edition lithograph by the African American artist James Denmark printed using traditional hand lithography techniques on archival Somers...
Lithograph
When the time slowed for us - Contemporary Architecture House Oil Painting
By Lilly Muth
Located in DE
Lilly Muth's architectural paintings transport viewers on a visual journey to a different world, where imagination knows no bounds and the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur...
Canvas, Oil
"The Italian Poppies" by Ed Baynard (Flowers, White, Abstract, Still life)
By Ed Baynard
Located in New York, NY
This is a 20 color screen print on Sommerset paper. The edition was printed at Brand X Editions in 1997. Ed Baynard’s paintings and graphic prints blend the contemporary and the cla...
Screen
New Girl in Town
Located in Zofingen, AG
New Girl in Town captures that delicate, almost imperceptible feeling of being slightly out of rhythm with the world around you — where everything seems settled, familiar, already un...
Canvas, Acrylic
Awaiting - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative Portrait, Africa, Modern Women
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube from Nigeria This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity (Issued by the Gal...
Canvas, Charcoal, Mixed Media, Acrylic
$2,120Sale Price|20% Off
Waiting To Blossom -21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative, Mixed Media, Fabrics
By Bakare Abubakri-sideeq Babatunde
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube. This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Bakare Babatund...
Fabric, Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil
Where hours float unseen - Contemporary Architecture House Oil Painting
By Lilly Muth
Located in DE
Lilly Muth's architectural paintings transport viewers on a visual journey to a different world, where imagination knows no bounds and the boundaries between reality and fantasy blur...
Canvas, Oil
$1,396
New Stories/6 – Contemporary Abstract Mountain Painting in Blue Grey and Rose
By HELEN MOUNT
Located in Zofingen, AG
This new series marks a return to landscape painting, reinterpreted through a contemporary, abstract lens. Familiar horizons dissolve into layers of color, light, and emotion, creati...
Acrylic
Talking with You
By Jacob Burda
Located in Zofingen, AG
This painting reflects a quiet moment shared by two people whose conversation seems untouched by time. They may be close friends or perhaps a couple — the kind of connection where wo...
Canvas, Acrylic
Mistress of the Autumn Garden
Located in Zofingen, AG
In this painting, the artist creates the image of a woman as the keeper of the harvest, of space, and of the rhythms of nature. Her figure rises from the earth as naturally as the ap...
Canvas, Acrylic
Open Sea
Located in Burlingame, CA
River Sequence Morning, by Brooks Anderson, created with oil on panel. 24 x 48 inches. Unframed and ready to hang and enjoy. Brooks Anderson is a contemporary painter whose oil lan...
Oil, Panel
2:22 AM by Tyler Shields
Located in New York City, NY
Los Angeles-based photographer Tyler Shields seeks “beauty in chaos,” capturing both young models and celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. His polished editorial imag...
Archival Paper, C Print
$3,750Sale Price|25% Off
Philosopher Original Oil Painting Canvas Surreal 30x38in Signed Paula Craioveanu
Located in Forest Hills, NY
"Philosopher" . Original, unique painting. oil on canvas, 30x38in. Shipped rolled in a tube from Europe to the USA using DHL or FedEx, no custom or import fees in the US. Shipped rol...
Canvas, Oil
Earthy Abstract African Trees, Rusted Metal Composition "Farm Landscape Study 4"
Located in Cape Town, ZA
Nyasha Mashumba, having been the apprentice of Mark Hilltout, has now started to carve out a career for himself as artist and designer, utilizing the medium and craft he has mastered...
Metal, Steel, Iron
Gaïa by Romain Langlois - Boulder-like bronze sculpture, golden
Located in Paris, FR
Gaïa is a bronze sculpture by contemporary artist Romain Langlois, dimensions are 90 × 64 × 75 cm (35.4 × 25.2 × 29.5 in). The sculpture is signed and numbered, it is part of a limi...
Bronze
$1,396
Miami II 005 by Bernhard Lang - Aerial view photography, beach, sea, umbrellas
Located in Paris, FR
Miami II 005 is a limited-edition photograph by contemporary artist Bernhard Lang. It is a C-print impression on Hahnemüle Fine Art Paper. This photograph is sold unframed as a pri...
C Print
Signed Oil on Canvas Painting of Gentleman, Circa 2000, 90x60 cm
Located in Sitges, Barcelona
Title: Gentleman in Interior (After Fernando Botero) Artist: Sanz (Spanish painter, active late 20th – early 21st century) Year: circa 2000 Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions (unfr...
Oil
$1,840Sale Price|20% Off
Roots and Rhythm - 21st Century, Contemporary, Figurative, Mixed Media, Fabrics
By Bakare Abubakri-sideeq Babatunde
Located in Ibadan, Oyo
Shipping Procedure Ships in a well-protected tube. This work is unique, not a print or other type of copy. Accompanied by a Certificate of Authenticity. About Artist Bakare Babatund...
Fabric, Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil
Here and There
Located in Jersey City, NJ
Here and There is a stunning oil painting on linen of a seated figure in a room. This piece is in Leigh Cunningham's signature style of blurry abstracted realism.
Linen, Oil
Delight of Waves by Marylin Cavin - acrylic contemporary people painting
Located in DE
Marylin Cavin is a French-Swiss artist who completed her art studies in Paris, where she lived for about thirty years. For the past 25 years, she has regularly exhibited in galleries...
Canvas, Acrylic
Louis Vuitton Kiss Chromogenic Print, Framed
Located in New York City, NY
Los Angeles-based photographer Tyler Shields seeks “beauty in chaos,” capturing both young models and celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. His polished editorial imag...
Archival Paper, C Print
Meditation
Located in Burlingame, CA
Willard Dixon is widely recognized for his calm, contemplative landscapes and skyscapes, paintings that hold stillness, clarity, and a quiet reverence for nature. In this exhibition,...
Canvas, Oil
Emotionally Unavailable but Moisturized
Located in Zofingen, AG
Emotionally Unavailable but Moisturized is a quiet little rebellion against the pressure to always be available, productive, emotionally articulate, healed, glowing, thriving… prefer...
Canvas, Acrylic
Burst Variation 156 - Abstract Woodcut Print Circle Pattern Blue, 2025
By Eve Stockton
Located in Kent, CT
This woodcut print on paper is composed of a central, circular shape in violet on a blue patterned background. The monotype brings to mind the tradition of Japanese printing while be...
Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Monotype, Woodcut
'Veil' Acrylic Painting on Panel, Contemporary Landscape, 21st Century
Located in Burlingame, CA
Elizabeth Geisler is best known for her dazzling contemporary water reflection paintings that bridge realism with abstraction. Up close, the paintings appear ambiguous and loose, yet...
Acrylic, Panel
Werner Bronkhorst - Diamond Sea
Located in London, GB
Diamond Sea, 2025 Gicleé print on Hahnemuhle Daguerre Canvas framed in Tasmanian Oak edition of 69 100 x 100 x 5 cm (Framed) Hand-signed and numbered by the artist. Werner Bronkhor...
Canvas, Giclée
'Surrounded Islands 1982', Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida
By Javacheff Christo
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Surrounded Islands, Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida, 1980-83 Using 6.5 million square feet of floating pink fabric, Christo and Jeanne-Claude encircled eleven islands in Miami...
Offset
$850
Beneath the Rainbow, White and Blue, Abstract Geometric Figure, Cyanotype Print
By Kind of Cyan
Located in Barcelona, ES
This handmade cyanotype monotype presents a striking interplay of geometric abstraction and atmospheric depth. Layered translucent forms in deep Prussian blue and soft white overlap ...
Paper, Monotype