The 10 Most Inspiring Young Artists In NYC Right Now

Francesca DiMattio is New York through and through. She was born here, raised here, went to Columbia and then Cooper Union, and she lives here now with her husband, artist Garth Weiser. And, of course, she shows her work here, currently in Table Setting and Flower Arranging at Salon94. "I was thinking a lot about domestic activities, like flower arranging and setting a table, sewing and quilt-making," she said. "I was trying to take them out of domestic surroundings and re-present them in an unfamiliar, primary way." An example: her 8-foot totem made out of a mash-up of porcelain vases. DiMattio learned everything she could in a year about ceramics so that she could reference French Rococo china and merge it with unfinished, un-polished clay pots that look "as if a kid got a hold of glaze and just started pouring them all on at once." The magic is in that mix: "These two things co-exist. The glaze from one will drop onto the other. They affect one another. Nothing stays un-bothered." (Special nod from another artist on this list, Amelia Bauer: "Those sculptures give me tingles.")

As for the famous braided updo, yes, she's still wearing her hair like that. "You could, of course, look to Frida Kahlo and Mexican hairstyles but also German and Russian and African cultures," she says. "They all interest me."

Click through to see more of Francesca DiMattio's work.

Photographed by Tom Hines.