In 2022, we saw a rise in it neo-surrealist art, of NFT and of fabric-based art practices. These were trends that were coming to the surface until the end of 2021, but did not fully materialize until the spring of the following year. Now, several other styles are emerging as staples that may have their moment this year.
Artsy spoke with seven leading curators who lent their expertise and shared their insights into the styles and themes that may emerge recently or continue to garner attention in 2023. Many expect the sociopolitical climate to continue to inform artists' practices, with some predicting an increase in more provocative art that critiques religion and systemic oppression.
Other curators are looking for new Latin American media practices and are excited about how artists such as Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro and Xandra Ibarra they use video and installations to create immersive environments that challenge the separation between screen and body. Meanwhile, others are interested in the possibilities and questions that artificial intelligence will continue to raise in relation to writing in the art world.
All curators expressed a general interest in artists who push the boundaries of their particular medium and continue to expand their practices in innovative ways. Overall, there is excitement and hopeful promise that 2023 will bring about a year of artistic risks.
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Larry Osei-Mensah
Independent Curator. Co-Founder, Artnoir
New York
Larry Ossei-Mensah predicts that abstraction by artists of color will become even more prominent in 2023. The genre, Ossei-Mensah believes, is essential to changing the public's belief that artists of color should only make representational works that are immediately readable. As an example, he pointed to the divisive reaction to public sculpture The Embrace (2022) of Hank Willis Thomas which was recently revealed. Ossei-Mensah also expects that abstract masters such as Mo Booker, Raymond Saunders , Howardena Pindell , Emma Amos , Atta Kwami and Barbara Chase Riboud will receive overdue recognition in 2023 as more institutions reexamine their body of work in relation to the younger generation they have inspired.
Ossei-Mensah expects that criticism from writers of color, especially those concerned with the relationship of abstract art to cultural practice, will have a particular impact on the art world. He cited the work of Hilton Als, Robin Givhan, Folasade Ologundudu and Doreen St. Felix as projects to watch. In addition, it listed the artists' 2023 solo exhibitions Chase Hall , Guadalupe Maravilla , Ming Smith , Tomashi Jackson , Frank Stewart , Amoako Boafo , Kennedy Yanko and Anouska Mirchandani as indicative of what is to come this year.
Hans Ulrich Obrist
Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries
London
Hans Ulrich Obrist seeks the work of artists who reexamine notions of property, land and the body in relation to the future. He is especially excited about video games. As he explained, “Video games are to the 21st century what movies are to the 20th century and novels are to the 19th century. Today, it's much easier for artists to develop their gaming environments."
Obrist cited his work Gabriel Massan in the Serpentine as a prime example of an artist who “discovers new meanings in video games and phenomenology… inviting players to activate a fantastical and disorienting world filled with Massan's digital sculptures, custom animations, films, the camera and sound developed by his partners," he said. Obrist places Massan among an incredible generation of Brazilian artists, including Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro, Jota Mombasa and Ventura Profana .
Adrian Villa Rojas , the Yinka Shonibare and Otobong Nkanga , as Obrist noted, continue the legacy of the great Gianfranco Baruchello , who founded Agricola Cornelia (Agricultural Society) in 1973. the climate crisis and many emerging artists continue to be inspired by his designs for their own legacy and future,” explained Obrist. "For example, instead of producing reports, the Precious Okoyomon considers temporalities, including ideas related to gardens and nature. Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg takes a similar approach through the Her Pollinator Pathmaker—her garden near the Serpentine was one of our highlights last year. Ginsberg's custom computer algorithm created a planting plan to support the maximum possible number of pollinator species and took the pollinator's point of view, not the human's.
Obrist continued, “As the artist often told me Ian Cheng, at the heart of his art is the desire to understand what the world is. Now more than ever, the dream is to be able to own the agency to create new worlds."
Vivian Crockett
Curator, New Museum
New York
Vivian Crockett is fascinated by what will emerge in the fields of new media art, film and photography, particularly by artists of color from Latin America. When approaching Latin American art, Crockett emphasized that an understanding of the continent's political landscapes is vital. "There is an increased recognition of the white supremacist logic affecting Latin American countries, both historically and in the present, resulting in clearer conversations around race, class and indigenous struggles for autonomy," he said.
As for the media art that interests her, Crockett looks forward to the transnational conversations that the Sharjah and Sao Paulo Biennale will spark. In the state, she is excited by the major video and multimedia exhibitions held at the MoMA and Fort Worth Museum of Modern Art later this year, as well as from his research Isaac Julien in Tate Britain and her individual exhibition Ja'Tovia Gary in Paula. Cooper Gallery .
Eileen Jeng Lynch
Curator, Bronx Museum
New York
Eileen Jeng Lynch predicts that the art of the land , Indigenous and immersive art practices will take center stage in 2023. In particular, he singled out artists who use conceptual art to navigate history and memory, including Firelei Baez , Chloe Bass , Maria Berrio , Andrea Chung , Joana Choumali , Sean Desiree, Abigail DeVille , Anaïs Duplan , Scheherazade Garcia , Guadalupe Maravilla , Daniel Lie and Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow. Jeng Lynch added, "Each of these artists has unique perspectives and contributions, and through their work, they have introduced a level of innovation and depth to the overall artistic fun."
Jeng Lynch further elaborated that artists who provide counter-narratives to the dominant historical record and push the boundaries of their medium in abstract and figurative painting as well as sculpture will continue to set trends. He specifically noted the practices of Derek Fordjour , Tomashi Jackson , Sara Jimenez , Anina Major , Natalia Nakazawa , Angel Otero , Kevin Quiles Bonilla , Amina Ross , Tariku Shiferaw , Jean Shin and Saya Woolfalk. Jeng Lynch added that the critical scholarship of Lisa Lowe, Anna L. Tsing, and Saidiya Hartman will continue to inform artistic pulses.
She remains excited for new discoveries in 2023, as pottery has been in recent years. "Another often overlooked area is those artists who are self-taught, often labeled as 'outsider artists' (ie those whose work does not reflect an overt influence from the mainstream art world) and who bring a new energy in the field,” Jeng Lynch wrote on Artsy.
Jesse Firestone
Curator, Montclair State Galleries
Montclair, New Jersey
Jesse Firestone is on the lookout for more genre-shattering art in 2023. In particular, they point to outsider art practices – such as using humor or creating challenging works with unconventional material and subject matter – as big trends for the year. "I think performance artists who embrace failure by taking their work seriously but not taking themselves seriously will get a lot more attention," they said. “There's a lot to learn from this kind of work, and I think people are hungry to see how we can work with imperfection, messiness, and unpredictability. 2023 is a year that embraces risk."
Firestone's attention to risk arises from the tumultuous year of crypto-art in 2022. The incredibly rapid rise and subsequent fall of NFTs has shown that while artists will continue to innovate art with new technology, some trends may collapse the just as fast to increase. Firestone believes that artists will continue to learn from the market and reflect on the failures of these experiences in their work. Due to the crash of NFT, Firestone sees physical media art or art that embraces the body as important for 2023. This is the work they actively support as curators: “Ultimately I love being able to provide artists with the space to stretch, take risks and succeed in those endeavors,” said Firestone.
Rachel Vera Steinberg
Curator, Smack Mellon
New York
Rachel Vera Steinberg is excited that a greater number of artists will further delve into the mystery of art production throughout sculpture and computer-generated art. It is inspired by artists who transcend the limits of the medium in which they work, as well as the space in which they exhibit. She mentioned her job Emily Clayton , her Tommy Faison and her Charisse Pearlina Weston as prime examples. Steinberg also anticipates more conceptually driven work on text- and discourse-based art, such as K Allado-McDowell's recent book Amor Cringe (2022), which was compiled with AI software.
Additionally, Steinberg predicts that the past year's challenges surrounding systemic injustice will lead to artists addressing class and social equity in the art world. "One of the most striking trends of the past year has been the proliferation of AI image generators," he said. "It's hard to predict this as a direction, but it has the potential to further challenge images as containers of meaning."
Separately, Steinberg believes that more religion-inspired artwork will come to the fore in 2023. "I feel like we're entering a moment of re-examining religion, including but also beyond its relationship to spirituality," he explained. “I see it formally in visual symbols and materiality: For example, in the way an artist like Tammy Nguyen incorporates metal sheets to refer to illuminated manuscripts, but also to other modes of production that are modern, such as the increased interest in metalwork. "
Zoe Whitley
Director, Chisenhale Gallery
London
Zoé Whitley seeks out artists who push the boundaries of traditional art practices. "The artists that inspire me right now defy genre expectations," he said. “A painter like Ravelle Pillay it brings to mind the magic of the persistent fluidity of oil paints as if they were watercolors. The trained in photography Laurie Kang applies the material lessons of photosensitivity to breathe new life into architectural atmospheres, and the versatile Benoît Piéron teases out poetry and tenderness from illness, without passion, but with beauty and tenderness.” Pillay, Kang and Piéron will have dedicated solo exhibitions at Chisenhale Gallery later this year.
In addition, Whitley looks forward to the institutions working more closely together. He hopes that these partnerships, and their accompanying resources, will support ambitious art practices and result in long-term exhibitions that can be seen and experienced by a wider audience. These later points are heavily influenced by Tricia Hersey's manifesto Rest is Resistance (2022) and Ghostly Matters: Haunting and the Sociological Imagination (1997) by Avery Gordon.
Source: artsy