Pointing at things as I see them:
The art market diss track part 1
-nobody is safe.
💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰💰
Let me paint you a picture. You are an arts student:
Hahahahah what a dumbass 🤡. This was your first mistake 🤣. You should have done something else with your life like your dad told you to.
What do we do now that we are already here, though? Will all of us be broke? I know many struggling artists, but I also see many rich ones in gallery openings and online. Which of us will be which? Today we are talking about money moves.
*sniff* *sniff*...what's that smell? Do I smell a POOR?????
Let's start with the simple stuff:
Are you a painter?
Do you work with sculpture?
Potery?
Printing?
Drawing?
(Any other traditional medium ?)
If you said all of the above or any one of them, then congradulations!! You are very easy to SELL. Your work will forever be stuck to sales because the very medium you use was birthed via some sort of exchange. Maybe you could connect back to neolithic cave paintings, but let's be real. Painting/ sculpture/ other traditions as we know them today began with commission work. Face the music 🙈.
If you do anything else, then don't worry. You can also SELL. Capitalism is very clever, and we have found ways to sell even the most untraditional mediums! EVERYONE CAN BE A SELL OUT!!! You, me , your mom, your uncle Steve, talkative bus Jen.
That's right! Performance people, "new media" people, ""digital"" hommies, land art lovers, conceptual hotties. Don't you dare think you have escaped the pits of money laundering just because you decided to be different halfway through your degree.
RELAX
Your art, too, will be part of a tax evasion tactic.
I know some of you may be shocked or distraught by this realisation but it is fundamental you strip these flawed self notions of highness before we continue.
Leave it in the clothing hanger by the door please.
...
So much lighter right?
Ok.
Let's dig in >:)
If there is one thing art does well, it is selling. It is the key concern nowadays. Before even fully defining itself, art is quick to sell. Why is that?
If surviving off of selling my art alone means chaining the work to the market (whichever one you pick), then should I choose not to be successful? -Assuming I have the choise. HA. I'm really whipping out the comedy show today.
QUICK, google if it's too late to turn back now and become a painter whose work doesn't address anything but pleases the eye . Call it "painting about painting" or the term I coined "visual pornography." I WANNA SELL. I TAKE IT ALL BACK.
Just kidding.............
Lately, I have paid CLOSE attention to this trend. A lot of art is looking to sell. Previous dissociations of art from the market have been undone, if they ever existed to begin with. All art is in the market no matter what Marina Abramovic may tell you. Artists with a "career" or looking to get one may not be selling in the same places, but they sell nonetheless.
Some sell paintings,
Some get grants,
Some auctions,
Some have private investors (this is very real just go to london for a weekend)
Some apply to residencies, competitions, etc
Join any art group, and you will see that this will be the hot topic. Going through ways of income. "Opportunities."
Is there really any difference between selling out to a commercial gallery or selling out in the art market or selling out for an arts grant application? OR selling out to a museum??
Do you remember when NFTS happened and people shat on them. The same artists that did were selling at Sotheby's. They were just trying to pull focus, you dummie 😜. Don't get me wrong, they were horrible, but it's FUNNY, to say the least. Hearing oil painters talking about the ecological impact of NFTS. QUICK, where does your oil rEAlLy go ????
Are you showing at (insert big gallery)? Oh, ok...........
Right.
The NFT moment only revealed how much people were focused on them dolla billz.
*Megan Thee Stallion* Ah 👅
🤑🤑🤑 Artists who never touched the digital because they fetishized the analogue (and feared anything that didn't allign with historically defined mediums) were suddenly morphing into middle-aged reddit tech bros. The Marina nfts were... something. Not necessarily within this category of profiles, but I am writing it down so you know I have not forgotten.
I always looked at the academic scene as the contrasting force to this issue. See? I am bad, too. Booboo, the fool.
The more I progress in life, the more I realise it all works in similar ways. Just different fonts to the same sentiment.
M
O
N
E
Y
And they copy each other's structures. Employing exactly the same methods of "employment." Briefs in open calls reflect what the market is looking for, BIG institutional shows do the same. Content loses meaning, as artists jump from viral term to viral term.
Example:
I never thought about the antropocene much, but I guess, for this application, I could connect my art to it by drawing loose comparisons over the overarching impact of human society.
LOL
Note: I'm not saying the work would be bad or good. Nor am I commenting on the antropocene. It's the thought process that seems poor. If one is passionate about something, let that be out of a need to dissect, deconstruct, or maybe look at, or simply enjoy. NOT to snag the next big opportunity. Where is the critical lens, anyways? If you only looked at the antropocene or any other contemporary train of thought AFTER a brief then what? What are you really doing?
The amount of AI usage in catalogues/ shows I have seen from people who could care less about tech is WILD. WE GET IT, you wanna feel new... just go to the club bestie and order a tequila shot. I saw a show that, granted, was a massive slay, but it didn't address AI (with all due respect). It used it in one of the pieces, but it dialogued very little with technology. Why then would the artist feel inclined to frame the work within that discourse. It couldn't possibly be discourse because nobody was talking 😶🫥. The artist had nothing to say about this. Addressing something on mute 🔇. Maybe using AI as a work/conceptual accessory at most. This was done for__________(I'll let you fill in the blank)
You know what especially IRKS ME??
Not only is art an atm machine, but it is ALSO a best friends race?? Curators, art dealers, facilitators, or the recent it girl term "cultural producer" (LMAO). Call yourself what you wish but often times you are
SOCIALITES.
It has little to do with the work. Just selective v.i.p 4th grade birthday party invites. Survival of the friendliest? Not even. Perhaps of the most passive. Probably.
Anyways... I'll put that on hold. We'll talk about corruption in another post.
Back to money talk.
I thought perhaps I could do the classic fine art career tangent. Anyone into starting a micro buiseness and using our transferable skills ? 🤓
Inspo bellow:
