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Contemporary Art

CONTEMPORARY STYLE

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.

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Style: Contemporary
Recognized Seller Listings
The Devil - figurative, contemporary, dystopian, acrylic on paper
The Devil - figurative, contemporary, dystopian, acrylic on paper

The Devil - figurative, contemporary, dystopian, acrylic on paper

Located in Bloomfield, ON

This graphic painting by John Scott deals with images associated with the devil and war. Growing up in Windsor, Ontario, in the 1950s during the Cold War, John Scott experienced the...

Category

1980s Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Something got me started. Color photograph of a assembled guitars body Sculpture
Something got me started. Color photograph of a assembled guitars body Sculpture

Something got me started. Color photograph of a assembled guitars body Sculpture

By Kevin Krag

Located in Miami Beach, FL

For this body of works, Krag incorporates live and dry flowers,vines, moss, air plants and ocean driftwood creating botanical instruments that seem to touch on contrasting themes of vitality and decay. He creates breathing and dying objects deeply connected to the passing of time, stilled lives contemplating mortality and the brevity of beauty and life. Photography helps Kevin Krag...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Color, Archival Pigment

Rodeo Cowboy by Anouk Krantz 2018

Rodeo Cowboy by Anouk Krantz 2018

By Anouk Krantz

Located in Chicago, IL

Rodeo Cowboy (B&W) 2018 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT Unframed Sizes: 45 x 30 in (114.3 x 76.2 cm) - Edition of 8 + 2 AP (Artist Proofs) 60 x 40 in (152.4 x 101.6 cm) - Edition of 10 + 2 A...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment, Silver Gelatin

"When the Moon and the Sky Talk About Flowers"

"When the Moon and the Sky Talk About Flowers"

By Ana Maria Hernando

Located in Lyons, CO

The artist describes this project: “I paint and draw flowers, not only out of mesmerized wonder for their presence on earth, but also as a rebellion against the labels of “decorative”, “inconsequential” and “superficial” that have been equated historically to the art of women...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Lithograph

The House That Aloe Built (Florida Suite)
The House That Aloe Built (Florida Suite)

The House That Aloe Built (Florida Suite)

Located in Greenwich, CT

"The House That Aloe Built" from Kiraly's Florida Suite is a serigraph on paper, signed 'John Kiraly' lower right and numbered CLVIII/CC lower left. The image size is 19 x 20.75 inch...

Category

20th Century Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Screen

American Bison by Anouk Krantz 2021

American Bison by Anouk Krantz 2021

By Anouk Krantz

Located in Chicago, IL

American Bison (B&W) 2021 ARCHIVAL PIGMENT PRINT Unframed Sizes: 45 x 30 in (114.3 x 76.2 cm) - Edition of 10 + 2 AP (Artist Proofs) 60 x 40 in (152.4 x 101.6 cm) - Edition of 10 + ...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment, Silver Gelatin

Loosha

Loosha

By Gary Komarin

Located in Fairfield, CT

Mixed media on paper 34 x 12 in. Work is currently unframed. Framing is additional

Category

1990s Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Mixed Media

Falla suave
Falla suave

Falla suave

Located in Miami Beach, FL

In this project, exploring the fluid condition between the virtual and real world, the artist seek to materialize my experiences in digital environments - whether browsing through G...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Acrylic

ORBITA #2 and #3 Diptych. From The Series Orbita
ORBITA #2 and #3 Diptych. From The Series Orbita

ORBITA #2 and #3 Diptych. From The Series Orbita

Located in Miami Beach, FL

This artwork depicts a perfectly synchronized dance across an ocean of empty space, inspired by the "Astronomical" section of the Jet Chocolate Bar Natural History Album (1986 editio...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Resin, Wood, Coating, Ink, Acrylic

Pause 2/3 - desktop bronze, sculpture
Pause 2/3 - desktop bronze, sculpture

Pause 2/3 - desktop bronze, sculpture

By P. Roch Smith

Located in Bloomfield, ON

The legendary canoeist and Canadian filmmaker Bill Mason once said, “First God made the canoe then he created a country to go with it.” Sculptor Roch Smith has embraced the iconic i...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Bronze

Marella Agnelli in Marrakesh
Marella Agnelli in Marrakesh

Marella Agnelli in Marrakesh

By Manuel Santelices

Located in Miami Beach, FL

Movies, TV and magazines are constant source of inspiration. Fame, as fleckring and shallow it can be sometimes, is very intriguing to him. The worlds of fashion, society and pop cu...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache

Trees and Snow II, by Peter Milton
Trees and Snow II, by Peter Milton

Trees and Snow II, by Peter Milton

By Peter Milton

Located in Palm Springs, CA

Medium: lift-ground etching and engraving Edition: 15 Year: 1961 Plate: zinc 9 x 15 inches (22.9 x 38.1 cm) Paper: Murillo, 16 x 21 inches (40.6 x 53.3 cm) Peter Milton is internati...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Engraving, Etching

"Rhapsody"

"Rhapsody"

By Ron Hicks

Located in Scottsdale, AZ

Born in Columbus, Ohio, in 1965, Ron Hicks was an avid artist from an early age. Hicks began his formal studies in art at the Columbus College of Art and Design in Ohio. Hicks contin...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Oil, Wood Panel

Saving Gaia III
Saving Gaia III

Saving Gaia III

By Deborah Ballard

Located in Dallas, TX

Deborah Ballard is best known for conceiving of figures and groupings of figures who relate to one another (and the viewer) through their body language, relationships and dialogue. S...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Bronze

San Rafael,  Artist Self Portrait. Black and white Photograph
San Rafael,  Artist Self Portrait. Black and white Photograph

San Rafael, Artist Self Portrait. Black and white Photograph

Located in Miami Beach, FL

Water is constant in the artist's visual investigation, for her water is no longer the stage in which the body's memory bursts, but rather the environment and protagonist, constant o...

Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Art

Materials

Photographic Paper, Archival Pigment

Jack Rabbit
Jack Rabbit

Jack Rabbit

By Robert Deyber

Located in Greenwich, CT

Jack Rabbit is a lithograph on paper, 9.5 x 7.5 inches image size. From the edition of 395, numbered 151/275 (there were also 100 Roman and 20 AP), framed in a contemporary, silver-t...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Lithograph

Isolation III. From the Isolation Series
Isolation III. From the Isolation Series

Isolation III. From the Isolation Series

Located in Miami Beach, FL

Starting with photographic base elements, such as the figure or the landscape, Haider transforms the scenery into a surreal world through heavy post-production. She uses photographs,...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Rag Paper, Archival Pigment

Like Ice in the Clouds (Japan) No. 94

Like Ice in the Clouds (Japan) No. 94

By Simone Rosenbauer

Located in New York, NY

15 x 15 archival pigment print, framed, edition 8. Signed, titled, dated and editioned on frame label provided. In this latest body of work, Simone Rosenbauer continues her series "...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Gisele Buendchen with Paparazzis, Cannes - supermodels escaping from the press
Gisele Buendchen with Paparazzis, Cannes - supermodels escaping from the press

Gisele Buendchen with Paparazzis, Cannes - supermodels escaping from the press

By Michel Comte

Located in Vienna, AT

All prints are limited edition. Available in multiple sizes. High-end framing on request. All prints are done and signed by the artist. The collector receives an additional certificate of authenticity from the gallery. In 1999, star photographer Michel Comte created a series of images with supermodel Gisele Bündchen in Cannes, France for Vogue Italia. The highly praised artworks are now part of fashion and fine art history and sought-after worldwide. Intimate moments of a young Gisele captured on camera in Comte's raw signature style. The saturated colours of the broiling desert against the piercing blue of the clear sky or the cool palette of an intimate black-and-white portrait; Michel Comte can do it all. The Swiss star...

Category

1990s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Caballero, Two and One, Diptych. From The Motion Series
Caballero, Two and One, Diptych. From The Motion Series

Caballero, Two and One, Diptych. From The Motion Series

By Ricky Cohete

Located in Miami Beach, FL

Throughout his exploration of movement of the body, with modern and ballet dancers, as well as a focus on the male physic; he has concentrated on the curves and lines of the their anatomy. The expansion of the body as it intertwines with the light and the infinity of motion as an eternal dance. The harsh lights and shadows in the warm Florida weather led Ricky Rocket to explore photography. The sharp and refined effect of these types of lighting conditions became a necessity to avoid studio environments. Self-taught, while photographing ballet...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Cedars - Twilight's Path 001, Green Forest at Night, Medium/Large Photograph
Cedars - Twilight's Path 001, Green Forest at Night, Medium/Large Photograph

Cedars - Twilight's Path 001, Green Forest at Night, Medium/Large Photograph

Located in London, GB

Forest at Night..., Twilight.. Cedar trees, English woodland... Cedars - A dense stand of western red cedar guard the path into the darkness beyond the lamplight. A gap in the foliag...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Wood, Archival Pigment, Glass, Oak, Walnut, Photographic Paper, Color

Book
Book

Book

By Hendrik Kerstens

Located in Miami Beach, FL

Hendrik Kerstens, Book, available in two formats: 30x40 and 50x60 inches

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment

Untitled II. Painting. From the Medium - Screen Time series
Untitled II. Painting. From the Medium - Screen Time series

Untitled II. Painting. From the Medium - Screen Time series

Located in Miami Beach, FL

In this project, exploring the fluid condition between the virtual and real world, the artist seek to materialize my experiences in digital environments - whether browsing through G...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Canvas, Wood, Oil, Giclée, Mixed Media

Cy Twombly with pink chairs. From the Interiors series
Cy Twombly with pink chairs. From the Interiors series

Cy Twombly with pink chairs. From the Interiors series

By Manuel Santelices

Located in Miami Beach, FL

A new series inspired by architecture, décor and stylish personalities of the world of interior design. The worlds of fashion, society and pop culture are captured in the illustrati...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Gouache, Acrylic

Script: Column 9
Script: Column 9

Script: Column 9

By Elizabeth Turk

Located in New York, NY

Born in Pasadena and raised in Orange County, Elizabeth Turk earned her M.F.A. at the Rinehart School of Sculpture, Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. In Turk’s work, the shape of the line is created by extreme loss. That is, the reductive process of carving creates a positive, fragile form in which the absence of the original material is a focus. Turk encourages us to consider how nature has shaped these organic materials long before the artist’s manipulation of them into new forms. When viewed as components in a complex natural system, their singular beauty and inherent mystery is revealed. Turk compels us to view works of art not only as objects to be coveted and collected, but also as expressions of the natural world and our evolving relation to it. A recipient of numerous awards, including a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship (2010), a Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Fellowship (2010), and a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship (2011), Turk is internationally recognized for transforming her signature medium of marble into strikingly intricate objects that defy convention and challenge our preconceptions of what marble can do. Through the use of electric grinders, dental tools...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Marble

Chanel Pastels, Fashion, Watercolor Painting
Chanel Pastels, Fashion, Watercolor Painting

Chanel Pastels, Fashion, Watercolor Painting

By Manuel Santelices

Located in Miami Beach, FL

The artist has covered New York collections for over 16 years and has interviewed, as a journalist, several fashion designers and personalities for different publications. He loves t...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Art

Materials

Paper, Watercolor

Hotel Chelsea, New York. Room 121
Hotel Chelsea, New York. Room 121

Hotel Chelsea, New York. Room 121

Located in Miami Beach, FL

These extraordinary photographs are part of the the Hotel Chelsea series. The Hotel Chelsea closed its doors for the first time in its iconic history of over one hundred years. Amer...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

C Print

Roma 2020 A 09bn, Black and White Architecture Photograph
Roma 2020 A 09bn, Black and White Architecture Photograph

Roma 2020 A 09bn, Black and White Architecture Photograph

By Luca Artioli

Located in Miami Beach, FL

Luca Artioli has always been fascinated by Roman Statues. As a child, he wandered through the Imperial Forum creating dialogues between them. For young Luca the statues were alive. T...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Archival Pigment, Black and White

Aqua - large, geometric abstract, contemporary, mild steel, outdoor sculpture
Aqua - large, geometric abstract, contemporary, mild steel, outdoor sculpture

Aqua - large, geometric abstract, contemporary, mild steel, outdoor sculpture

Located in Bloomfield, ON

A collaborative project, artist Javid Jah and fabricator Alex Akbari of Qube Inc. re-designed this series from a recent public art exhibition in downtown Toronto, which was exhibited in collaboration with Roger Mooking and Wyandot artist Catherine Tammaro. The dynamic geometric form of the three pieces—Terra, Aqua and Aero (the elements of earth, water and air) is inspired by the ideas of cosmology (the study of the universe) and sacred ancestral principles. Forged from steel, light shines through the intricately detailed pattern of perforations on the surface. Each individual sculpture can also be used as a wood burning or gas fire pit...

Category

2010s Contemporary Art

Materials

Metal, Steel

Gisele Buendchen Smoking - b&w Portrait with Jewelery, Fine Art Photography 1999
Gisele Buendchen Smoking - b&w Portrait with Jewelery, Fine Art Photography 1999

Gisele Buendchen Smoking - b&w Portrait with Jewelery, Fine Art Photography 1999

By Michel Comte

Located in Vienna, AT

Black-and-white Portrait of Topmodel Gisele Bündchen with luxurious jewelry and cigarette, photographed by Michel Comte in Cannes for Vogue Italia 1999. All prints are limited edition. Available in multiple sizes. High-end framing on request. All prints are done and signed by the artist. The collector receives an additional certificate of authenticity from the gallery. In 1999, Star Photographer Michel Comte created a series of images capturing intimate moments with a young Gisele Bündchen in Cannes, France, for a Jewelry Campaign published in Vogue Italia. The highly praised artworks are now part of fashion and fine art history and are sought-after worldwide. This black-and-white portrait shows the supermodel with wet hair and smeared makeup as if she had just come back from a swim in the ocean. Her head is tilted back slightly, and the look she is shooting the camera is somewhat condescending yet challenging. With one hand, she is brushing her messy hair out of her face, showing off the cigarette she is holding to the viewer. The grungy and rebellious image is juxtaposed by the lavish jewelry the Model is wearing: Big chandelier earrings...

Category

1990s Contemporary Art

Materials

Black and White, C Print

Contemporary art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Contemporary art available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add art created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Stefanie Schneider, Tyler Shields, Kirsten Thys van den Audenaerde, and Richard Heeps. Frequently made by artists working with Paint, and Paper and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Contemporary art, so small editions measuring 0.02 inches across are also available.