POST BY PADDY JOHNSON
Jessica Rankin, Nocturne, 2004, Embroidery on organdy, 7 x 7 feet. Image via: PS1
W Magazine identifies six up and coming young artists in their annual arts issue this month, five of whom are 37, the sixth, 38. Can we not use the term “mid-career” or “established” any more? Jessica Rankin and Sterling Ruby aren’t posed to be the art world’s next stars, they are the art world’s stars. Both show at uber-established blue chip galleries, White Cube and Pace Wildenstein respectively. You have to wonder what additional accolades these artists would need to receive to launch their careers out of the up-and-coming category.
Anyway, W Magazine may dupe their readers into thinking they’re going out on a limb by naming a couple up-and-comers, but we’re not buying it. Just because these six aren’t selling diamond encrusted skulls doesn’t mean they’re not already at the top of their game.
{ 6 comments }
as someone who wrote several of these kind of America’s Next Top Artist! pieces for Conde Nast in the past [for the deservedly dead Vitals Magazine, what can I say, I was momentarily flattered by the ask], I always understood the up&coming/emerging rubric was purely from the mag’s readers’ standpoint, not the artists’. These were artists who non-art trendchasers should be buzzing about.
The editors’ requirements soon became annoyingly clear: work that had sold for 4-5 figures but was now selling for six or more…that had been bought by name collectors…but you couldn’t get it because there’s a waitlist. And the artist had to be in a recent biennial or have a big show coming up somewhere/anywhere for a news hook.
Name collectors, though, hilariously devolved to the Rubells, Saatchi, David Geffen–or Mike Ovitz. For the last one I wrote, about Inka Essenhigh, I went ahead and threw in S.I. Newhouse as her big breakout collector. Joe Zee was NOT amused.
as someone who wrote several of these kind of America’s Next Top Artist! pieces for Conde Nast in the past [for the deservedly dead Vitals Magazine, what can I say, I was momentarily flattered by the ask], I always understood the up&coming/emerging rubric was purely from the mag’s readers’ standpoint, not the artists’. These were artists who non-art trendchasers should be buzzing about.
The editors’ requirements soon became annoyingly clear: work that had sold for 4-5 figures but was now selling for six or more…that had been bought by name collectors…but you couldn’t get it because there’s a waitlist. And the artist had to be in a recent biennial or have a big show coming up somewhere/anywhere for a news hook.
Name collectors, though, hilariously devolved to the Rubells, Saatchi, David Geffen–or Mike Ovitz. For the last one I wrote, about Inka Essenhigh, I went ahead and threw in S.I. Newhouse as her big breakout collector. Joe Zee was NOT amused.
Thanks for this. Your snark level is right on target. We don’t get our fashion news from Art Forum (assuming we want fashion news). We’re not gonna get our art news from W.
Thanks for this. Your snark level is right on target. We don’t get our fashion news from Art Forum (assuming we want fashion news). We’re not gonna get our art news from W.
however you certainly can get your fashion news from artforum considering the fabulous glossy advertisements (hello juergen teller)
however you certainly can get your fashion news from artforum considering the fabulous glossy advertisements (hello juergen teller)
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