Five Abstract Artists to Follow on Instagram This Week

Caroline Denervaud, Stanley Whitney, Thomas Trum, Derek Lerner and Karen O’Brien—five abstract artists whose Instagram feeds turn painting into movement, colour into structure, and even systems and ice into art.

There’s a kind of creative energy that hits fast when you open your feed and realize the week is going to look different. Five abstract artists—each working in their own orbit—are using Instagram as a place to keep a practice alive: through dance marks. colour as architecture. traces that feel physical. systems made visible. and frozen flowers that turn time into paint.

Caroline Denervaud’s work moves like it’s been rehearsed in the air. The Swiss artist trained in classical and contemporary dance at the Laban Centre in London before studying fine art. and that history still shows up in the way her paintings feel like motion. Her process often begins with an improvised dance, letting her body leave traces across the canvas using charcoal or ink. The result isn’t just an image—it’s a record of movement itself, something you can almost hear.

Stanley Whitney brings a different kind of rush: vivid abstract paintings and prints where colour becomes the structure holding everything together. Inspired by figures such as Piet Mondrian and Giorgio Morandi. as well as American quilt-making traditions. Whitney approaches painting with spontaneity that feels deliberate. In his own words, he “follow[s] the paintings wherever they take [him]. If the painting goes out the door. [he] follow[s] it out the door; if it goes out the window. [he] follow[s] it out the window.” It’s the closest thing to a manifesto in the middle of a week’s scrolling.

Thomas Trum is chasing something even more immediate: traces. Hailing from the Netherlands. he focuses on line and colour. often using tools that make the marks look built rather than simply drawn—felt-tip pens or rotating spraying machines. The effect. as his work tends to land on the viewer. is bright and three-dimensional. as if the surface is starting to come forward.

In a feed that often turns into a maze of images, Derek Lerner is mapping instead of mirroring. NYC-based, he engages with the “creation, control, use and experience” of systems in his art. His visuals interpret information spaces, including ones related to tax evasion, identity theft, the metaverse and urbanism. The atmosphere is vibrant and fascinating—less about abstraction as escape. more about abstraction as a way to make hidden structures feel visible.

Karen O’Brien’s practice adds time and texture in ways that look almost impossible until you see it. Working across pastel, acrylic and mixed media, she produces richly textured abstract paintings on canvas and paper. More recently, she has experimented with freezing floral arrangements in blocks of ice. The transformation gets documented photographically over several days. and then those frozen changes are translated into mesmerising painted forms—an alchemy where nature’s decay becomes something you can hang on a wall.

Put them together and the pattern is hard to ignore: abstraction here isn’t quiet or distant. It’s kinetic. It’s structural. It’s material. It’s systemic. It’s seasonal. If you’re looking for creative vigour this week. their Instagram feeds offer a steady stream of it—each post a reminder that visual art can hold movement. logic. and transformation at the same time.

MISRYOUM Culture News abstract artists Instagram art Caroline Denervaud Stanley Whitney Thomas Trum Derek Lerner Karen O’Brien abstract painting performance and painting information systems art frozen floral arrangements