10 Most Popular Artists on EIL in 2011

1. Rune Guneriussen is the most popular artist on EIL in 2011. His dream-like installations captured 20% of total unique visitors in 2011 and received 3,525 likes with 48 rave reviews.

The 10 Most Popular Artists on EIL in 2011 was determined by traffic reported by Google Analytics from social media sites; Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook, but mostly from StumbleUpon. Escape into Life has featured over 1,500 emerging and established international artists that can be explored through Artist Watch or easily browsed through our full archive. But enough about us… back to our 10 Most Popular Artists of 2011!

2. Matheus Lopes 11% of total unique visitors in 2011, 230k page views, and 1,052 likes. This young illustrator from Brazil was originally featured in July but it wasn’t until October 15th when his traffic spiked to 7k page views and has remained high since.

3. Julie Heffernan 10% of total unique visitors in 2011, 1900 likes, and 65 comments. Julie was originally featured on April 23rd, 2010 and again a couple weeks later in an art review Julie Heffernan’s Constructions of Self where Linnea West discussed the highly personal and symbolic nature of Heffernans’ paintings. Julie’s original feature received over 200k page views in 2010 and an additional 220k  in 2011.

4. Philipp Igumnov (AKA Woodcum) 7% of total unique visitors in 2011, which is incredible given that this Moscow based collage artist was only just featured on October 11, 2011.

5. John Kenn In 2010, Kenn was the most popular artist on EIL with 320k page views on his original feature and 72k page views from a showcase posted shortly after. He managed to impress us again this year with over 4% of  total unique visitors. Despite 2,800 likes and mostly positive reviews, there are definitely a few who feel differently. While we at EIL are obviously big fans of his work, we love the honesty and conversation displayed through the 151 comments.

6. Rae Marshall On November 3rd, 2011,  Marshall received an astounding 14k page views after first being featured on November 1st. With 71k total page views since then, this young, talented, 21 year old photographer clearly has a great future ahead of her.

7. Sun Xun With 39k unique visitors, Sun’s ability to juxtapose the traditional techniques of hand-drawn animation with new media is clearly a success. Sun has continued to attract visitors daily since he was originally featured in November 2009.

8. Kathleen Lolley 21,500 unique visitors since April 2011.  Given her repetitive use of critters and giant owls, it’s evident that storytelling and nature are clearly prominent elements in Lolley’s work.

9. Katharine Kuharic  17,500 unique visitors since November 21st, 2011. This American artist currently lives and works in New York.  As described in her original feature, Kuharic’s work is a twisted synthesis of old-fashion American kitsch and contemporary concerns of gender, race, celebrity and the status quo.

10. Kipling West 17,500 unique visitors in 2011. West’s beautiful illustrations have received hundreds of likes and awe struck comments since she was originally featured in January of 2010.

Runner-up. Charles E. Williams II  This landscape artist from South Carolina has received 15,500 unique visitors since August 2011.  Williams is a graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design  and was showcased in the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America exhibition in New York.