9 Most Popular Contemporary Artists in April and Banksy

They are getting more and more popular, it seems. The German duo Herakut, consisting of Hera the painter and Akut the graffiti artist, moved up from the 7th spot last week to just behind Banksy this month. They have just participated in Vertical Gallery’s Two Year Anniversary show. Most of the artworks Herakut do are commissioned, but they also do smaller works that are exhibited within galleries or published in books, of which they have released two, in forms of retrospectives of their art between 2004 and 2009, as well as 2009 and 2011.

What Jeff Koons does these days is participate at almost every auction out there and sell really good per tradition. Some people just love to hate him, but the fact remains that today’s art scene can’t not mention this eccentric artist, whose artworks are popping out of everywhere in all their color and shine. Whether he is working with some other artists who are also all over the place, like Lady Gaga, or designing things for basketball clubs, he doesn’t seem anywhere near stopping causing controversy and creating tongue-in-cheek art that creates an enormous gap of opinions in the world of art.

Maybe they haven’t been on our list of top artists on Widewalls, but they are definitely regular in our Street Updates. The Brazilian twins are definitely among the best Brazilian street artists you should know, so if you somehow don’t already – get on it. In January, Os Gemeos created an installation for Rio de Janeiro’s Museu Casa do Pontal, entitled The Bunker, to stay part of the museum’s permanent collection, and in February, they collaborated with another street art legend, JR, on a beautiful piece in Sao Paolo, Brazil, which combines the two distinctive artistic styles. That’s perfection right there.

He was on our January and February lists, skipped March but returned right on it in April. Because Nick Walker is one of the most important figures on the British street art scene, and there is not a bit of a doubt there. Almost a month ago, his solo show at Galerie Brugier-Rigail in Paris ended. In the meantime, he also found a well-deserved spot in our featured article on the development of graffiti art in the 21st century. He is the artist who inspired Banksy and who continues to inspire a bunch of others, being a true king of the underground scene in his own unique way.

For Earth Day, he invited us to pay more attention to how we treat our environment and called on us to make Earth Day every day. For Miami City Ballet, he jumped in for a collaboration, and it turned out better than you’d think. He even ended up on our 10 Important Moments in Graffiti History and 10 Inspirational Murals lists. That’s because he is Shepard Fairey, one of street art’s finest, as an activist, illustrator, graphic designer and provocateur. This 45-year-old has been around for over twenty years, and is as influential as ever with his controversial art.

Oh, Basquiat? Yeah, he is here again. He was, obviously, an inevitable part of our Street Art Legends cycle. Two of his artworks have already reached the highest prices of this year. His rarely seen notebooks are on display at Brooklyn Museum until August 23rd. The artistic career of Jean-Michel Basquiat, even though cut short too soon by his untimely death at the age of 27, left a legacy that will live on until the end of time. No one will ever be able to repeat the uniqueness and the sensitivity of his artworks in any way, as that kind of talent only gets earthly once.

Continuing his stay on this list is Spanish artist Borondo. By now, you’ve probably learned that he is the one famous for the scratched glass technique. Born Gonzalo Borondo, he experimented with all sorts of forms of expressions from an early age, including charcoal, oil, tempera, but quickly figured out his place is on the streets. Nowadays the master of revealing what’s behind a glass surface by scratching it, Borondo had his first exhibition in 2005, when he was only seventeen years old. His current favorite topic was the human figure, but that evolved into depicting animals as well.

Just recently, Guy Denning was Widewalls Artist of the Week for some great reasons. One of them is his current solo show at Pretty Portal in Dusseldorf, Germany, on view until May 22nd. Together with the above mentioned Nick Walker, this amazing self-taught contemporary painter formed and shaped the British art scene. In his art, Guy Denning likes to mix several media, like dripping paint, crayons, stencils and spray cans, creating a reflection of his feelings and impressions in an unconventional way. He is also known for creating artworks regarding Dante’s Commedia.