Art Trends

A good friend of mine who lives in Saudi Arabia asked me about current topics/trends happening in art for potential phD studies. This was my response-

Well, right now what's getting so much attention is art and political propaganda related specifically to the White House, our current President and his relations. His face is everywhere- in satire drawings, on cakes at art receptions,* in oil paintings represented in very grotesque ways... As much as I disagree with the current administration and have a lot of dislike for Trump, I struggle with this sensational, slamming style of art making because I think much of this art, which is meant to oppose the current administration, is actually feeding into it and giving Trump even more power. When we look back on this time in art we will see that man's face everywhere and that disturbs me.

A similar thing happens to criminals-the most evil doers become famous. While their crimes need to be remembered, their faces should be erased from history.

Technology is also on the forefront of art and this takes many different forms from the materials themselves to the things that make the materials. Often, technology is compartmentalized to mean artificial advancements- like computer technology and robotics, but another area of technology is biologically based- gene mapping, DNA-nano fabrication.... It is now known that genes have note, pitch and duration- characteristics of music. Fascinating stuff.

*As for the face cake comment- In John Baldessari's work, he put colored circles over the faces of people he didn't want to see. I prefer this action to eating such a face on, in or of cake. I like cake :-)