40

For

40:

Women

In

Art

The art world is undergoing huge shifts, but how will these changes affect creativity? Here, continuing ELLE's 40th anniversary celebrations and their promise to spotlight the cohort who will define the next four decades, ELLE shines a light on the industry's visionaries.

These women and non-binary creatives prove the power of art as a means of self-expression, community-building, as well as resistance and leadership. And where they haven't seen themselves represented, they've forged new paths and created meaningful work for a different kind of future.

This list of creatives includes painter Cassi Namoda, known for her strong colour palette and narrative approach. Her hybrid narratives are at once wondrous and poignant, everyday and fantastical, archival and current. Namoda’s work transfigures the cultural mythologies and historical narratives of life in post-colonial Africa, particularly those of the artist’s familial home of Mozambique. Namoda’s paintings are highly elusive, drawing upon literary, cinematic and architectural influences that capture the expansiveness of her specifically Luso-African vantage point.