



W hether for laughs, meaningless strolling or to show off your swag through monotonous selfies, the polaroid-esque app hether for laughs, meaningless strolling or to show off your swag through monotonous selfies, the polaroid-esque app Instagram has been there to inspire generations.  Unlike its predecessors, the online mobile photo-sharing, video-sharing, and social networking service bases its focal point on the artistry of photography.  An art form within itself.  Since the initial release in 2010, the mobile app has gained popularity with 300 million users as of December 2014. 



The use of hashtags (#) have made it easy to browse for specific preferences and keywords.  Users can search a keyword and view real time images that people are sharing from around the world.  One popular hashtag is " artlife ".  With 1,023,015 posts and counting, artist worldwide are inspiring one another with their art.  Art aficionado Kasseem Dean, bka Swizz Beatz, has somewhat curated his own gallery on the social network, titling it " thedeancollecton ."  The Dean Collection hashtag gives the starving artist a chance to be seen by their peers, as well as Kasseem.  Mr. Dean has also brought the tag to life, by showing chosen artist of his liking in exhibition. 





Today we're curating our own art exhibit with the 10 Artist You Should Be Following on Instagram (list below).  From street art, canvas paintings, murals or bugattis these artist are driven with the passion to create and change perspectives one brush stroke at a time.  Trust us, after following these artist your feed will liven. 





Christopher Florentino, known as “Flore” [pronounced Floor-ee], is a hot new artist whose work echoes influences of the late Keith Haring, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol.  Flore aims to strip away all of the filters society places on our lives, all of the habits we get stuck in, the rules we blindly follow, and the stereotypes we subconsciously subscribe to; “I try to see things simple, but you can get lost very easily in the monotonous pattern of life.  Hi-def, multi-colored filters, or distractions, can mask reality; I want to deconstruct and expose those layers for what they really are, not just what they seem,” he says. 

BAMR, which stands for Becoming A Man Righteously, is the moniker Demetrius Washington has been creating under for the past 7 years.  What began as a simple name influenced by the graffiti culture of Stockton, CA but eventually gained significance as he felt that it had to be much more than just a name, and thus developed the meaning of the acronym.  BAMR's works tend to be a reflection of the name, often including messages, planned themes and concepts carried out using vibrant, contrasting colors.  Although, neither personal nor professional does B.A.M.R's works promote a religious agenda, they are often influenced by the practice of his faith. 

#8: Bryan Avila (@theproducerbdb)

The Producer BDB (Born Bryan Avila , Riverside, CA), is a Contemporary artist, primarily recognized for his street art.  He creates images that blend Pop Icons with current fashion trends.  His distinct style merges elements of street, pop, fashion and fine art.  His street art has been showcased accross the world in the streets of Rio De Janerio, Madrid, Paris, Miami, Berlin and Los Angeles where he lives. In addition to exhibiting at institutions and galleries in Beverly Hills, Ca, Boca Raton, FL.  South Hamptons, NY and Maui.  In 2015 Bryan was chosen as an artist by Delta Airlines to exhibit at the new LAX Sky Lounge. 

#7: Hebru Brantley (@hebrubrantley)

Hebru Brantley, breaks down the walls of cultural boundaries through his art.  Inspired by his 1980’s Chicago upbringing, Brantley’s work touches on tough subjects in a way that may be easily digestible to the viewer, by telling his stories through youthful characters and their adventures.  Brantley’s work can be described as pop infused contemporary art inspired by Japanese anime and the bold aesthetics of street art pioneers Jean Michel Basquiat, Kaws and Keith Haring.  While spray paint is often at the forefront of his mixed-media illustrations, Brantley utilizes a plethora of mediums from oil, acrylic and watercolor to non-traditional mediums like coffee and tea. 

#6: Michael Savoie (@savoieart)

Michael Savoie is an artist by nature whose journey has landed him stops in fashion and graphic design ultimately settling into his current role as photographer and painter.  Falling in love with both processes, Savoie finds himself emerged in a world of non-stop creativity and beauty that keeps him stimulated at all times.  Painting has long been an aspiration of his, so after moving back to Texas from San Francisco in 2003 and no longer connected with the fashion industry, Michael Savoie taught himself how to paint.  It was more of a technicality since he has illustrated since childhood; naturally he picked up on the skill quickly.  Painting his way into galleries, exhibitions and FOX's hit series EMPIRE. 

#5: Kehinde Wiley (@kehindewiley)

Los Angeles native and New York based visual artist, Kehinde Wiley has firmly situated himself within art history’s portrait painting tradition.  As a contemporary descendant of a long line of portraitists, including Reynolds, Gainsborough, Titian, Ingres, among others, Wiley, engages the signs and visual rhetoric of the heroic, powerful, majestic and the sublime in his representation of urban, black and brown men found throughout the world. 

#4: Alex Yanes (@alexyanes)

When you first meet Alex Yanes, you are struck by how laid-back and approachable he is.  Born in Miami, he is the product of both the ever-evolving, fast-paced city and the burgeoning art scene.  Since he decided to pursue art full-time in 2006, his work has become his autobiography, speaking volumes about who he is and what he has seen.  A son of the city, his story is influenced by his Cuban roots and an ever-growing curiosity about all the things Miami had to offer him during the 80’s and 90’s.  Yanes’ work is the result of years spent immersed in skateboard, tattoo, hip-hop and rock culture during his teenage years, but says he felt the stirrings of creativity at a young age. 





#3: Hagan Brothers (@haganbrothers)

Born from the creative hands of internationally exhibited brothers Jo & Graeme, Hagan Brothers breathes new life into the modern art space and audaciously showcases the brothers’ conventional artistic training into contemporary pop art influenced pieces.  Sown from the seeds of their internationally accredited master impressionist father Robert Hagan, brothers Jo & Graeme were artistically trained from a very early age.  The more traditional style for which the brothers have gained a reputation have been exhibited in countless well regarded galleries across the USA and Australia including galleries in Aspen, Beaver Creek, Denver, Dallas, Jackson Hole and right across the mid west. 

#2: Sandra Chevrier (@sandrachevrier)

Sandra Chevrier currently lives in Montreal, Quebec.  She is a gaze collector, an idea chaser and a full time single mom.  Her work takes her traveling over a broad range of fluctuating emotional enigmas and concepts that have set the standard of our modern communication.  Her recent series "cages" is about women trying to find freedom from society's twisted preconceptions of what a woman should or shouldn't be.  These women encased in these cages of brash imposing paint or comic books that masks their very person symbolizes the struggle that women go through with having these false expectations of beauty and perfection as well as the limitations society places on women, corrupting what truly is beautiful by placing women in these prisons of identity.  By doing so, society is asking them to become superheroes. 

#1: Pichi & Avo (@pichiavo)

Spanish duo known for their ability to create relationships between art, architecture, sculpture, space and social contexts, adopting a highly attractive and performative approach steadfast in its artistic and innovative fully address their mergers.  In his art we can identify the perfect deconstruction of classical art and the latest street art to create a new fusion remains true to its classical heritage produce a vision of arte. PichiAvo are one since 2007, fleeing the egocentricity of graffiti, come together to give birth to a single work recites urban poetry conceptually, born of artistic formalism of the street, transferring fragments of the wall and back to the canvas in a personal view.