Artists as curators and a round up of other art trends

FINE ART TRENDS

Ben Lewis of The Evening Standard, London has published an intriguing piece called the Best Shows of 2009 in which he predicts the upcoming trends in art. Apart from a new trend in which artists are acting as curators

shed a tear for the freelance curator. They are about to be made extinct by the contemporary art bust, and, as if that wasn’t enough, there is a new fashion for artist-curated shows. Even worse news: artists often turn out to be great curators.

Lewis is also predicting growing interest in:

• historical conceptualism^TM – artists who integrate in their works scientific devices and artistic processes from the Renaissance to the 19th century;
• altermodernism, a new “ism” from French curator, Nicholas Bourriaud, who gave us relational aesthetics;
• and a great year for female artists.

We could not resist posting a response in the comments section with an edited round up of trends in Asia and beyond:

We at Art Radar Asia loved your predictions. We would like to know more though – can you include links? We are also seeing an increase in attention given to females (artists, curators, professionals) especially in China and the Middle East. Other trends we are spotting include an interest in light as a medium and a backlash against ‘fast factory art’ and with it a rediscovery of traditional materials (bamboo, thread) slow techniques and personal involvement. The influence of new media art, Japanese manga and osaku culture is strengthening and globalisation of the art market is threatening to reverse as a result of the recession. Korean art is receiving a warm reception in the west. Central Asian artists are getting noticed and Turkey has appeared as a new art maket. Sculpture and video are growing in popularity among corporate collectors. Diaspora Asians have been moving back home or have strengthened their connections with homelands. Hong Kong has overtaken Paris as the third largest art market by auction revenue and of the top 10 auction houses, 6 are now Chinese. Interesting times.

Due to space limitations imposed by the site’s comments section, we omitted a few more trend themes that we are spotting  but we look forward to covering these and all of our trend news in upcoming posts. In the meantime why not leave us with your ideas in the comments section below or on the Evening Standard’s site. What do you think are some of the most interesting trends happening in art?

Related categories: Trends, Thread art, Feminine, Turkish,  

Related posts:

• What are the new trends in Chinese art? Melissa Chiu Asia Society video Feb 2009
• New roles for art collectors organisations created by Cao Fei on Second Life Jan 2009 – references the use of social and new media on art
• Central Asian art meets mainstream market Dec 2008
• Asians, women gain and banks tumble in Art Review’s Power 100 Oct 2008
• Corporate art collecting in decline since the 1980s – Wall Street Journal Oct 2008
• Korean contemporary art spread through Asia threatened by meltdown Sep 2008
• Women emerge onto the Beijing art scene International Herald Tribune Aug 2008

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