5 Art Instagram Accounts Every Artist and Art Lover Should Have on Their Feed
Instagram can be a strange place for artists. One minute, you are looking at a painting you cannot stop thinking about. The next, you are twenty reels deep into something completely unrelated and wondering where your creative focus went.
But when you curate your feed well, Instagram can become much more than a place to post finished work. It can introduce you to artists you have never heard of, help you discover opportunities, teach you something new and even remind you that other creatives are figuring things out too.
The trick is knowing which accounts are actually worth making room for. Instead of filling your feed with the same major museums and art publications everyone already knows, these five accounts offer something a little different. Some are brilliant for discovering artists, some can help you find opportunities, and some are simply worth following when you need a little creative fuel.
1. @thisiscolossal: For Discovering Art That Makes You Stop Scrolling
Some art accounts are easy to scroll past because you have seen the same kind of work a hundred times before. Colossal is rarely one of them.
@thisiscolossal is a great account to follow when you want to discover the stranger, more experimental and unexpected sides of visual culture.
Its world stretches across sculpture, installation, photography, craft, illustration, design, architecture and all sorts of unusual ways of making. You never quite know what you are going to find next. That variety is what makes it particularly useful for artists.
You might find an intricate sculpture in one post, an unusual photographic project in another, and a completely different approach to materials a few scrolls later. It can be a good antidote to the feeling that your Instagram feed has somehow become a collection of the same five visual trends.
For artists, inspiration does not always have to come from work that looks like your own. In fact, sometimes the most useful references are the ones that make you think, I would never have approached it that way. Colossal is worth saving when you are looking for ideas about materials, presentation, scale or simply new ways of looking at an ordinary subject.
2. @mepaintsme: For Finding Artists You Have Not Heard Of Yet
If you are tired of seeing the same handful of artists appear on your feed, make some room for @mepaintsme.
MEPAINTSME is a virtual contemporary art platform founded by US-based artist and curator Anna Bresler. Its Instagram feed has grown into a curated archive of more than 10,000 art historical and contemporary artworks, with a particular focus on discovering lesser-known paintings and artists.
And that is exactly what makes it interesting. You do not follow an account like this simply because you want another stream of finished paintings appearing on your phone. You follow it because you want to discover. One post might lead you to an artist whose name you have never encountered before. Another might send you looking up a completely different period, medium or visual language. The account creates those little rabbit holes that are often the best part of being an art lover.
It is also useful for artists who are developing their own visual references. Instead of searching for “inspiration” and being shown the same algorithm-friendly images over and over again, you can spend time looking at work that exists outside your immediate visual bubble. And sometimes finding one artist you genuinely connect with is worth far more than saving fifty random inspiration posts.
3. @opencallforartists_: For The Opportunities You Might Otherwise Miss
Artists spend an astonishing amount of time looking for opportunities. Open calls. Juried exhibitions. Grants. Competitions. Residencies. And because every opportunity has its own deadline and requirements, it is incredibly easy to miss something simply because you did not know it existed.
That is why accounts dedicated to artist opportunities can be much more useful than they initially seem. Open Calls for Artists is one worth having on your feed. It is specifically used to share open calls and opportunities for artists, giving emerging and working artists another place to discover exhibitions and submissions. Artist resource lists also regularly point to the account as a source for open calls.
The best part is that you do not need to be actively searching for an opportunity every day. You can simply scroll, spot something interesting and save it for later. Of course, seeing an open call does not automatically mean you should apply. Read the eligibility requirements carefully, look at the theme, check the submission fee and consider whether the opportunity actually makes sense for where you are in your practice.
But having those possibilities appear in your feed is a good starting point. And every artist knows the feeling of finding an open call two days after the deadline. Following a dedicated opportunity account might help you avoid at least a few of those moments.
4. @art.viewer: For A Daily Dose Of Contemporary Art
Sometimes you do not need an account that tells you what to think about art. You just want somewhere to look at good work.
@art.viewer is a beautifully curated account for discovering contemporary art, exhibitions and artists from different parts of the art world. Its feed brings together paintings, sculpture, installations, photography and other forms of contemporary practice, making it an easy account to fall into when you want to spend a few minutes simply looking.
What makes accounts like this useful for artists is the variety. You might see a painting that makes you rethink colour, an installation that changes the way you think about space or an artwork that uses a material you would never have considered yourself. You are constantly moving between different approaches to making and presenting art.
It is also a nice reminder that contemporary art does not have one particular look. Your feed can move from something quiet and minimal to something strange, colourful, conceptual or completely unexpected within a few posts. For an artist, that variety can be a much more interesting source of inspiration than endlessly looking at work that resembles your own.
And if you are an art lover, it is simply a good account to browse when you want to discover something new without knowing exactly what you are looking for. Sometimes that is how the best art discoveries happen.
5. @thecreativeindependent: For The Person Behind The Artwork
Not every useful art account needs to show you finished artworks. Sometimes you need to hear another creative talk about the part that happens before the finished piece.
@thecreativeindependent is a resource for creative people that focuses on the emotional and practical realities of making work. Its interviews and advice feature artists alongside writers, musicians, filmmakers, designers and other creative people.
That makes it particularly refreshing for artists. The art world can sometimes make creativity look like a beautifully organised studio, a finished body of work and a successful exhibition. The actual process is usually much messier. There are unfinished ideas. Bad days. Financial questions. Changing directions. Periods where you are not sure whether the work is going anywhere.
Reading about how other creatives handle those things can make the artistic life feel a little less lonely. It can also give you practical ideas. Maybe an artist talks about creating boundaries around their studio time. Maybe another discusses finding their own voice. Someone else might talk about self-promotion without feeling like they are constantly selling themselves.
Not every piece of advice will apply to you. It does not have to. Sometimes the most useful thing is simply hearing another creative say something that makes you think, okay, so I am not the only one figuring this out.
Make Your Feed Work For You
The best art feed is not necessarily the one with the most famous names. It is the one that keeps giving you different reasons to look.
Follow Colossal when you want to discover something unexpected. Turn to MEPAINTSME when you want to find artists outside the usual names. Keep Art Open Calls around when you are looking for your next opportunity. Follow Arts You Hungry when you want to discover artists through their stories and creative worlds. And when you need a reminder that being creative is about more than producing a perfect finished image, The Creative Independent has plenty to say.
You do not have to follow every art account you come across. Choose a few that make you curious. Save the posts that genuinely interest you. Follow artists you discover through them. Click through to exhibitions, interviews and opportunities when something catches your attention.
Eventually, your feed starts becoming a little more intentional. And that is the best way to use Instagram as an artist or art lover: not as a place to endlessly consume inspiration, but as a place to keep finding things that make you want to look a little closer.
