In honor of Women’s History Month, SAC Media features 31 female artists whose talent, impact and creative prowess deserve to be celebrated. In no particular order, explore the work and stories of these artists, curated by copy editor Austin Riggs.
1. twinsmoon (Deniz Kaptan)
Deniz Kaptian, known online as twinsmoon, is a “Turkish-born oil painter based in the San Francisco Bay Area,” according to her website. I am lucky enough to own a few original works from her after finding her X, and fell in love with her style instantly. Her use of bold color and familiar subject matter create what feels like a whimsical and intentional depiction of life as a young person, illustrated on an oil-canvas.
Ann Weathersby is a photographer and artist based in New York City. Being newer to her work, I was pleasantly surprised at how much of her work exists in the physical world. Weathersby has exhibitions of hers featuring manipulated books, glass pieces and photography. Her exploration of womanhood is timely for the month of March, and her visual style teeters on the surreal with elements of collagework.
3. Leah Gardner
Leah Gardner is a still life painter based in Chicago. With her modernization of the still life, matcha cups and Diet Coke cans are brought to life with a dramatic lighting scheme baked into her pieces. In the best way, realistic paintings of pigeons with lasers coming out of their eyes helps her work not only be approachable, but both infinitely funny and full of talent.
Hyperrealism and fleeting memory scenes are the foundation of Riona Buthello’s oil paintings. Based in Manchester, United Kingdom, occasionally British elements make their way into her paintings. If you drew on the window of your parents car as a kid, Buthello’s work will not only speak to the viewer, but take you back to memories you didn’t remember you had.
5. ShayTheSurrealist (Shaylin Wallace)
Shaylin Wallace, known online as ShayTheSurralist, goes beyond giving doodles a place to live, and instead gives them life. Whether it be digital works, doodles that live on pottery and jeans or full-sized murals, Wallace is constantly keeping her feed packed with new work. While I first found her through her digital collages, her willingness to keep creating has kept me a loyal follower, always looking forward to the next project she takes on.
Visually, Artem’s work is striking. With lush colors and textured brushstrokes, her work does just as much to pull viewers in as it does to keep us there. Working mostly in paintings, the commitment she has to her work is exciting and enjoyable. With enough texture in each piece to make someone want to feel it, her paintings feel biblical in scale and style.
Samantha Cavet is a photographer based in Madrid, Spain, who captures landscapes in a painterly way. With an attention to color and serenity, I find myself inspired by Caveat’s constant capturing of the world around her. Cavert’s work inspires me to pick up my camera, but frustrates me because I don’t come close to capturing what she does.
Camille Seaman is a photographer who merges beauty, science and activism. With a strong journalistic focus, Seaman captures and records the effects that climate change has had in the polar regions. Having credits from National Geographic to Time Magazine, her work keeps environmental advocacy in the public eye.
9. Kali Spitzer
Primarily a portrait photographer, Kali Spitzer highlights her Indigenous heritage, typically through film photography and analogue processes. Described as telling “the stories of contemporary BIPOC, queer and Trans bodies,” via her website, Spitzer ensures stories that might otherwise go unnoticed don’t. Her intimate black and white portraits bring an intentionality and needed exploration to marginalized experiences.
10. Jasmine Murrell
As an interdisciplinary artist, Jasmine Murrell has work from film credits, to paintings, installations and photography. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Murrell’s work focuses on community and how it impacts her. With an emphasis on the body and movement, Murrell’s involvement and understanding of her own community are what define her beautiful and raw work.
11. Nibha Akireddy
Nibha Akireddy paints textured, borderline psychedelic, works that deal with identity and culture. While self-portraiture and figurative works are her dominant subjects, Akireddy also writes in publications, and her work has been featured in Vogue India and British Vogue.
12. Petra Collins
Canadian born artist Petra Collins is an artist through and through. Between starting “The Ardorous” in 2010, a website that aimed to amplify female artists, and allegedly being the visual inspiration for HBO’s “Euphoria,” Collins has had a noticeable influence on the youth’s visual diet. I have printouts in my sketchbooks that are hers and I didn’t even know it. Without a doubt my favorite work of Collin’s is her directing. Her work on Olivia Rodrogio’s music videos for “Good 4 U” and “Vampire.” are some of Collins best work.
Eleonora Agostini is a photographer who won Aperture magazine’s First Book Award in 2025. “A Study on Waistressing,” the book that won the award, as well as Agostini’s other work emphasises the relationship between the body and labor. With an indexing-like aesthetic, Agostini’s work isn’t afraid to be what it is without succumbing to artistic trends.
14. Chanell Stone
Chanell Stone is California born and raised. She currently lives and works in Oakland. Best known for her series, “Natura Negra,” she explores blackness, nature and how they relate to one another. Nature is a theme that runs throughout Stone’s, with her bringing a serene and transcendental mood to black and white photography.
If blue is your favorite color, then Meghann Ripenhoff is your girl. Working in cyanotypes, which typically are sensitive to UV light and thus use the sun to develop the images, Riepenhoff goes beyond only the sun, using things like rain, snow and the ocean to further help create her images. Her works make it feel like you’re at an art gallery and an aquarium, all on the same trip.
16. Susan Meiselas
Incredibly impactful and sobering conflict documentary images are what Susan Meiselas is known for. Her focus on human rights issues within Latin America are what Meiselas is best known for. It’s clear in her work that she isn’t afraid to find or tell the truth through photography. Meiselas works in both black and white and color. She shows an honest depiction of what it means to be someone who photographs for the people.
17. Lia Darjes
Lia Darjes brings new life to the still life genre. Rising to prominence with her series “Plates I-XXXI,” Darjes’s inclusion of animals in her staged, stylized still lifes bring a sense of movement and liveliness to a historically rich and oversaturated artform. Darjes’s photojournalism work also challenges viewers, with an honest and raw depiction of queer culture in the eastern world.
18. Zoe Leonard
Zoe Leonard has a long history in the realm of photography, but has branched into sculpture and poetry. Her “I want a president” poem, written in 1992, places her as one of my favorite written works of the 20th century, and that’s just the beginning. Most recently, Leonard’s “Al Tio/To The River,” a photoseries about the Mexico/U.S. border in 2020, has lived in my mind since I saw it. Especially with such a major awareness toward ICE activity in the last year.
19. Mimi Plumb
I have a bias for California born or based artists, and Mimi Plumb’s work is right in that space. From themes of labor in the mid 70s, to drought commentary finishing in 2025, Plumb’s work nails down what it means to be a Californian. At times her photos feel Nan Goldin in aesthetics and her socially conscious, critical lens has Plumb standing as one of my favorite photographers.
Valerie Navarrete is an artist and academic. Having painted surrealist portraits and still lifes, making illustrations for the Yale Daily News and conducting research relating to epigenetics at the Mexico-US border, Navarrete can do it all. Her dedication to exploring any medium or topic that comes her way has positioned her as one of my favorite artists who simply does. Navarette goes from making textiles to conducting research about weaving, and her ability to be curious and excited is infectious.
21. Mishal Jamal
Mishal Jamal is a fine artist in the Los Angeles area, with a focus on design. Ranging from car design to apparel direction for major universities, Jamal’s art direction is refreshing to see. Her fine art is full of detail and passion. The realism she has control over makes Jamal’s work impressive and exciting.
22. Patssi Valdez
Another Los Angeles staple is Patssi Valdez. Valdez was born in East Los Angeles, and is a prominent voice in the Chicano art community. Her mediums span from video and photography, to paintings and sculpture. Her photography feels adjacent to pop-art, while her paintings are surrealist and colorful. In constant conversation with her identity, Valdez’s work feels just as relevant today as it did in 1972.
23. Dionne Lee
Creating work in video and photography, Dionne Lee creates collages and images that are simply striking. Nature and its place in our modern world is a central theme in Lee’s work, with organic forms and shapes often working their way into her work. Lee primarily works in black and white, with an emphasis on the darkroom which exemplifies her work in my eyes.
24. Camila Salinas
While some of us pretended we cared about making sourdough during Covid, Camila Salinas took the isolation of lockdown and started painting what I can only describe as on the nose self-portraits. Realism doesn’t begin to describe her work, with her pieces being so large in scale I originally thought they were photos edited to look like paintings. Salinas’s attention to detail, mixed with her use of humor have put her work at the top of my viewing list.
25. Zoe Bee
I’m of the generation that grew up on YouTube, and the video essay is one of my favorite formats. Zoe Bee’s channel is not only one that is deeply thoughtful and well researched, but incredibly timely in the things she covers. From breaking down PragerU’s terrible content to talking about right wing attacks on education, Bee constantly makes important and thoughtful videos that are both entertaining and informative.
26. Dasia Sade
Continuing in the YouTube space, Dasia Sade is another video essayist that I love. Sade has a nice mix or shorter and longer videos, and her casual but thorough style leads to really easy watching. Sade is always talking about relevant, timely topics. With her sources and her own thoughts, her videos stand above the rest.
Arielle Bobb-Willis is a photographer from New York City who currently works in Los Angeles. Bringing childlike whimsy and graphic elements to her photographs, Bobb-Willis’s work feels like when you’d make art as a kid, simply for the fun of it. This isn’t lost on her at all, as her most recent book “Keep the Kid Alive” deals with these exact ideas.
28. Luisa Estrada
Working with relief as her main medium, Luisa Estrada’s work focuses heavily on the environments around her. Estrada’s color reliefs feel map-like, with their aerial views pushing me to think about how the space around me actually looks. Her black and white work feels almost animated, with an elevated perspective and rich detail that has me constantly moving around her images.
Up to this point, I’ve done my best to ensure that the artists featured are living, and are “lesser-known” (no hate to anyone listed!) in the broader art canon. While wanting to ensure that this isn’t just a list of dead, but important, people I’ve reserved the last few entries of the list to be more open in its entries.
29. Catherine Opie
One of the most prolific queer-centered photographers we have, Catherine Opie photographs queer culture with a dignity and love that’s inspiring. Working in portraits and landscapes, Opie’s work is raw and confronts the viewer in an attempt to force them to reckon with their role in the queer social landscape.
30. Diane Arbus
One of, if not the most prolific artists from photography’s heyday is Diane Arbus. Known to some and loved by all, Arbus wasn’t the first, but was arguably the best at showing marginalized communities. Identity feels like the central theme in Arbus’s work, as she constantly was showing people in an empathic, non-judgmental way. This led to her photos being viewed as not just documentation, but personal moments she would share with her subjects.
31. Hayley Williams
I originally planned to just have this read “That’s it. That’s the tweet” because to me, Hayley Williams doesn’t need an introduction. But for the sake of the uninitiated, Williams stands as not only the greatest voices of the 21st century, but has led one of the most influential bands of all time, Paramore. And while Paramore has talented musicians in the band, it would be nowhere near the cultural juggernaut it is today were it not for Hayley Williams. Her most recent solo album “Ego Death at a Bachelorette Party” will go down as one of the greatest solo albums of the 21st century, and I would bet the house on that.
