To be an Artist in the digital times

One of the many advantages the internet has brought us is the accessibility of culture. Nowadays, there is no need to visit a museum or gallery to look at art. We can see it on the screen while lying under a warm blanket, which seems to be a great alternative for leaving the house on a cold, grey autumn afternoon like this. Of course, the experience will not be the same as a physical visit to an exhibition, but it is nice to have a choice. The development and popularity of social media platforms such as Instagram or TikTok have enabled artists to share their work and creative process with a broad audience online. Moreover, they provide visibility to anyone who makes art and wishes to share it. That means that whether one has a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts and plenty of experience in the field or is a complete amateur with a passion for creating, the chances of getting the internet’s attention are similar. Quite often, that is determined by how well you can promote your art, whether you know what people like to look at, and how the algorithm works. 

Copy and paste

Another way of gaining popularity as an artist is sparking a controversy. A good example would be a social media phenomenon I have been closely observing for a while now.   Instagram and TikTok users are becoming frustrated with the videos posted by boys who persistently try to promote paintings that are quite obviously inspired by canvases of famous neo-expressionist Basquiat. The interesting aspect of that is how even though the comments the creators receive contain a multitude of accusations of copying the renowned artist and lacking originality, they don’t seem to get discouraged by that and keep uploading new posts. Despite the reputation they are gaining being rather negative, it still grants them a certain popularity, so why would they stop? Perhaps it is a way of remaining visible. I can imagine that, at some point, those guys will move on to new styles, and many people will support them unconditionally. The appreciation will most likely come with any attempts to express originality. The paintings will not even have to be good because anything will be considered better than creating feeble copies of Basquiat. 

Luckily, taking as radical steps as the Basquiat clones is not essential to becoming an artist recognized online. The creators who cherish authenticity and stand against plagiarism also gain followers because oftentimes, all it takes is to be good at your craft and to share interesting ideas. Moreover, this way, you attract people who truly respect your practice instead of ones who are only invested in the drama. However, it is difficult to start gathering your audience therefore, promoting art online as an emerging artist can lead to many frustrations. Nevertheless, this can easily be changed if a bigger content creator notices you and features your work in their posts. Weopen is an artist and a self-proclaimed internet art critic who started a series of Instagram reels in which he comments on the art of his followers. The idea turned out to be a great success, so the creator not only gained numerous new followers but had to face the challenge of figuring out a way to choose from the multitude of people eager to get their art evaluated. That’s why now if you’re interested in his critique, you are required to pay a small fee. I find Weopen’s online activity incredibly beneficial for the online art community. Firstly, due to his rise in popularity, each of the videos reaches a huge audience, which provides visibility to all the emerging artists he mentions. By coming across his Instagram page, I became familiar with many inspiring creatives I would have never discovered myself. Other than that, his feedback and opinions are very constructive, allowing people to look at their art from a new perspective and develop further in their practice. Lastly, he created an online platform for art discussions where everyone can freely express their views and give input on the topic.

The digital on canvas 

To finish this blog, I want to talk about my observations on how the internet culture impacts the development of traditional art mediums like painting. I often use the internet to look at art, so I quickly notice specific trends that emerge in the art world. Because nowadays, almost every artist shares their works online, the pace of creation of such trends has highly increased. One of the tendencies in painting that I suspect became so common mostly due to its popularity on social media is using the airbrush technique.

Although I like the blurred effect and find many of the paintings done in this way interesting, I realized a lot of them look quite similar. This is linked to the fact that besides the usage of the same method of painting, the theme of those artworks usually connects with the digital realm. Very often, that imagery is inspired by old computer game graphics, references memes, or is created in a way that mimics a digital drawing. My intention is not to criticize artists who fall into the trend but rather to question how many of those artworks are created as a result of the genuine interest of their maker and how many of them are made because it is something accessible and liked by a general audience due to its use of popular media elements and is it something that is going to last.