These art Instagrams prove Instagram was made for art

Instagram was made for art. All image, low text. This is art absorption at its most fast and furious. Art advisors, galleries, and museums were all fast to follow a ton of artists on the cultural marketing gravy train. Weirdly LA artists seem to be the most popular ones on Instagram. However, some of the most interesting artists like @jaysonmusson @kenkagami and @amaliapica aren't in Cali and still have streams to love. Whereas, some art world people have huge numbers because artist Constant Dullaart @constantdull questioned the audience as a commodity and bought 2.5 million followers and spread them around. The following ten accounts (aside from @dazed and @roughversion, obviously) will add some visual spice to your phone life.

JAMES KERR (@SCORPIONDAGGER)

James Kerr's mini video works are made from Renaissance and medieval paintings. However, this is old masters through the eyes of Beavis and Butthead style grunge humour. Like a skate video made by Piero della Francesca and Van Eyck. While taking psychotropic drugs. Impossible not to love.

WORST ART EVER (@WORSTARTEVER)

This stream of flea market paintings, charity shop crap and garage sale gouche lives up to is name. The work here is so digusting that its hard to tear your eyes away - and how refreshing that it. Like Mike Kelley's Thrift Store Paintings installation in your pocket at all times. Lots of clown and animals here...

GEOFFREY FARMER (@ANHOURBEFORESLEEP)

Artist Geoffrey Farmer, who is representing Canada in the next Venice Biennale, has an Instagram so addictive it’s hard not to get excited when he posts. His focus is on clips from sourced vintage film and video – ranging from Russian sci-fi to 80s dance films. The results are magical, weird, funny, uncomfortable and simply the best thing on Instagram.

PUPPIES PUPPIES (@PUPPIESPUPPIESWOOF)

I'm not going to attempt to define artist duo Puppies Puppies (check out their website puppiespuppies.me to see their artwork) but if you want an example of artists firmly plugged into the contemporary ebb and flow of memes, viral oddness, and popular madness this is it. This is the go to feed for dancing digital gorillas, decorated fast food and disembodied lo-fi gore heads.

MAGENTA PLAINS (@MAGENTAPLAINS)

Gallery websites are often pretty interchangeable. Exhibition install shots, close ups of new works by their stable, perhaps an exhibition abroad here or there. Magenta Plains, a space which opened this year on Allen Street in New York’s Lower East Side, is better than most because the shows are often sourced from older artists the gallery doesn't 'represent', like William Wegman and Peter Nagy. A bit more fun, a bit more random than your average gallery action.

PABLO DE LA BARRA (@PABLODELABARRA)

Pablo is an incredible curator with a serious focus on Latin and South America. The works you see from his travels around the globe, on behalf of places like the Guggenheim and Rio's Casa Franca, show the art world is a whole lot bigger than the iPhone pockets of people in Berlin, London, and NYC. (He was also the founder of the oh-so-wonderful White Cubicle toilet gallery at sadly lost queer pub The George and The Dragon – so worth honouring for that alone).

KAREN ARCHEY (@KARENARCHEY)

Berlin-NYC curator Karen Archey has a rather classic account of strange observations from wandering the street, artworks she sees in her work around the world (often with a post post-internet influence) and show how the random things we see in life can be turned into art exhibitions with intelligence and humour.

NEW HIVE (@NEWHIVE)

Website New Hive positions itself as a platform or even a new medium. It is essentially a place to create digital moving image GIF collage work and the results are super varied – the best of which end up on their Instagram. These works suit the phone screen perfectly. Small, fast, colourful, varied works which also provide a chance to discover new talent.

HILTON ALS (@HILTON.ALS)

Author and critic Hilton Als has some serious intellectual oomph for books on cultural perception, race, and gender like White Girls and The Women. His Instagram account looks like a series of vintage Polaroids garnered from exhibitions, his own archive and city streets.

ART JIZZ (@ARTJIZZ)

Don't come too quick looking at this strange stream of gothic, supernatural. weird objects, engravings, and paintings pre-1959 (though most of the work is from the 19th century and earlier). There's everything from vintage dildos to skull portraiture here. Literary nerds should also check out @bookjizz for covers of tomes you probably have no desire to read.