5 Artworks on Our Heart List This Week

Running a global community for artists means that art is not something we go looking for it finds us, constantly, from every direction. Our feeds, our inboxes, our conversations, our quiet moments between meetings all of it is touched by the work of artists from around the world who are making things that matter. It is one of the greatest privileges of what we do here at Arts to Hearts project, and it is something we never take for granted.

Most days, the work washes over us in the best possible way. We see something beautiful, we feel it, we appreciate it, and we move on because there is always a next thing, always another artist doing something that makes you catch your breath, always another piece that deserves far more attention than the internet will give it on any given day.

And then there are the pieces that simply will not let you move on. The ones that plant themselves somewhere deep and stay there. That come back to you unexpectedly — in the middle of your commute, at the end of a long day, in that strange quiet space just before you fall asleep. The ones that make you feel something you didn’t know you needed to feel, something you can’t quite articulate but recognise immediately as true.

So we decided to start this editorial. Because those pieces deserve more than a double tap and a scroll. Every week, we are going to sit down, look through the incredible work being made inside and around this community, and share the artworks that genuinely moved us — because why not? Why not build a space where amazing art gets talked about, felt by more people, and shared far and wide? Why not make sure that the artists behind these pieces know that someone truly noticed, someone cared enough to stop, to write about it, to shout about it a little? That their work didn’t just pass through a feed and disappear that it actually landed, and mattered, and made someone feel something real?

Here is what is on our heartlist this week.

01. Summerland — Aaron Nagel @aaronnagel

The first artwork on our heartlist this week is Summerland by Aaron Nagel and honestly, it stopped us the moment we saw it.

There’s something about this painting that feels both incredibly intimate and quietly cinematic at the same time. Aaron is a San Francisco-based painter whose figurative work has this rare quality hyper-real, deeply emotional, and somehow always catching his subjects in a moment that feels entirely their own. In Summerland, a woman draped in sheer, blush pink fabric looks directly at you not with an invitation, but with a quiet confidence that is completely arresting. The way Aaron handles light through that translucent fabric, the warmth of her skin, the subtle details in her hands and jewellery it’s the kind of technical mastery that you almost don’t notice because you’re too busy just feeling the painting. It doesn’t shout. It doesn’t need to. It just holds you there, and you let it.

Go follow Aaron from the link below trust us, you’ll want to stay a while.

02. Leichtes Spiel — Nae Zerka @nae.zerka

The next one on our heartlist is Leichtes Spiel by Nae Zerka and this one is truly too good to be missed.

The moment we saw it, it stopped us completely. Against a bold, burning red background, a figure stares back at you with an expression that is impossible to read and completely impossible to forget. There’s a restraint here, a tension, something held back just beneath the surface and that is exactly what makes it so compelling. Nae is an artist whose work lives right at the edge of presence and disappearance, and this piece is perhaps one of the most quietly powerful examples of that we’ve seen in a long time. She works in soft pastel, acrylic, and oil, and the way those mediums come together here feels almost cinematic like a single frozen frame from a story you desperately want to know more of. Her current solo exhibition Echoes Left Behind at Gallery Stephan Stumpf in Munich is on view until May 2nd, and if you’re anywhere near Munich, please go. Some work needs to be stood in front of. This is absolutely that.

Nae’s work is the kind that deserves to be sat with slowly go give it the time it deserves. Link below.

03. Rafael y colaborador misterioso — Maria Herreros @mariaherreros

Next on our heartlist is this absolutely gorgeous piece by Maria Herreros and we are so glad we found it.

Maria is a Valencia-born, Barcelona-based Spanish artist whose work walks this incredible line between the beautiful and the slightly strange, between realism and distortion and somehow that tension is exactly what makes her portraits so completely magnetic. This particular piece was created as an interpretation for Museo Thyssen, and the way she has made it entirely her own is what got us. The figure looks back at you with those wide, quietly expressive eyes, draped in that signature blush pink there’s a timelessness to it that feels classic and deeply contemporary all at once. Maria works across painting, illustration, murals and comics, and Taschen has named her one of the 100 best illustrators in the world twice. Which honestly, one look at this and you completely understand why. Her style is empathetic, a little nervous, always deeply human and this piece is a perfect example of all of that.

We could honestly talk about Maria’s work all day but we’d rather you just go see it for yourself. Link below.

04. Pintura Digital — Brunna Mancuso @brunnamancuso

Our fourth one is Pintura Digital by Brunna Mancuso and this one made us smile the second we saw it, which honestly, we needed.

Brunna is a multidisciplinary artist from São Paulo, Brazil, and her work has this wonderful quality of finding extraordinary joy in the most every day, ordinary things. This digital painting pink tulips tumbling out of the most cheerful striped tote bag you’ve ever seen is so simple on the surface and yet so completely full of life. The colours, that bold pink and orange against the muted grey background, feel intentional and joyful in equal measure. What we love most about Brunna’s work is that it never tries too hard. It’s warm, it’s grounded, it’s the kind of art that makes you feel like everything is going to be okay. She works across illustration, painting and tattooing, and has collaborated with clients like H&M, Facebook and Anthropologie but it’s the personal work, like this, that really shows you who she is as an artist. Pure, uncomplicated beauty. We are here for all of it.

Pure joy, every single post go follow Brunna and let her work brighten up your feed. Link below.

05. Flirter avec le figuratif — Alexis Ralaivao @oavialar

Our fifth one is Flirter avec le figuratif by Alexis Ralaivao and oh, the detailing.

There is something about this painting that is almost impossible to look away from. Alexis is a Franco-Malagasy self-taught painter based in Rennes, France, working in oil with a level of technical precision that puts him firmly in conversation with the Dutch Golden Age masters he so deeply admires — Vermeer, Honthorst, Rembrandt. And yet his work feels entirely of this moment. This large-scale painting of lavender draped fabric 190 by 220 centimetres of the most luminous, tactile, breathtaking brushwork is currently on view as part of his solo exhibition Flirter avec l’abstrait at Pilar Corrias Gallery in London, running until May 23rd. The way he renders light across every fold and crease, the way the fabric seems to almost breathe on the canvas it is the kind of thing that reminds you what oil painting, at its very best, is capable of. Represented by Kasmin Gallery and with work held in the collection of the Institute of Contemporary Art in Miami, Ralaivao is an artist whose moment is very much now. And this piece is proof of exactly why.

This is an artist at the very top of his game right now go explore his world, and if you’re in London, please go see the show in person. Link below.

That is what has been on our heartlist this week. And if even one of these pieces made you feel something go find these artists, go follow them, go tell them their work landed. It costs nothing and it means everything.

Now if you are an artist, stay with us for a second. Because we are running our 100 Emerging Artworks of 2026 open call right now, and you only have 14 days left to submit. This is a global open call, open to all mediums, all styles, all backgrounds no gatekeeping, no barriers, just a genuinely exciting opportunity for 100 selected artists to be featured in a print publication and celebrated on a worldwide stage.

We have been doing this long enough to know that the artists who need to see this the most are often the ones who talk themselves out of applying.

Do not do that. Submit your work. Let us do the rest.