Contemporary Art Commons^™

The Great Mess Of Auction Catalogues, Hector Yuyang Chen

MA Theses

Ever since the Covid Pandemic in 2020, auction houses around the world have changed their policies on printed auction catalogues - many simply did not print auction catalogues, or at a much-reduced volume; publishing instead the information online. The issue here is evident: without public access, auction houses have the ability to manipulate data and self-regulate their records. This can result in a skewed presentation of data that favours their interests while concealing less favourable information. Public archives have already suggested their frustrations in this trend, most notably, at the Paul Mellon Centre: “Catalogues have been acquired in the following …

Ethical Dilemmas In Art Advisory Services: Navigating Influence In The Art Market, Noah G. Tyler

MA Theses

This scholarly exploration delves into the ethical dimensions inherent in
providing art advisory services within the dynamic milieu of the New York art
market. The spotlight is aptly directed towards influential entities such as
Gagosian Art Advisory, Lisa Schiff, Pace Gallery, Acquavella Galleries, Allan
Schwartzman, and The Brant Foundation. This diverse array of players vividly
illustrates the complexity of the ethical discourse prevailing in this intricate
landscape. The convergence of commerce and creativity leads to profound
inquiries regarding conflicts of interest, transparency, and the responsible
custodianship of cultural heritage, thereby unveiling the intricate relationships
underpinning the art world. The significance …

Paths To The Abstraction: Kandinsky And Rothko, Vera Schueler

MA Theses

This thesis explores the artistic journeys of Kandinsky and Rothko, focusing on underlying motivations that led them towards the realm of abstraction. Kandinsky and Rothko played pivotal roles in the development and advancement of abstraction in the art world. They shared the belief that only non-figurative art had the power to convey deep meaning and evoke profound emotions, going beyond mere representation of the physical world. Despite their divergent artistic paths, artists were united by the idea of the transformative power of artistic expression and aimed to transcend to the viewer the energy and concepts of their vision through delving …

Lost & Found, Minji Choi, Myeongkyo Kim

MA Projects

Lost and Found focuses on olfactory art and stimulates the sense of smell through
various means and materials. In this exhibition, diverse associations of the sense of smell are evoked through visual art. Through these fragrant works of art, personal, psychological, social, and cultural dimensions are conveyed and explored. The exhibition's title, Lost & Found, refers to the restoration of the sense of smell, which many people have temporarily lost due to the physiological and social effects of COVID-19.

Artificial Minds, Lara Bayer

MA Projects

This paper explores the artistic possibilities of artificial intelligence, as well as its ability to act as a creative being through its learned knowledge from the collective consciousness of human beings, whether this learned knowledge can be used by the AI to represent reality, and whether this can be problematic regarding learned biases from the preexisting ones of our own. Looking at the history of how far artificial intelligence has come within the creative artistic realm, examining the technical aspects of how exactly an AI is able to generate original art, and examining four artists that all collaborate with artificially …

Monumentality Of The Artist Chapel: Dissecting Light, Color, Spirituality, And Permanence, Katherine Isler

MA Theses

The concept and creation of the artist chapel is an opportunity presented to only a select few artists. Artist chapels are monumental, permanent works of art that expose a sweeping summary of the artists oeuvre and act as a window into the mind of the artist. The chapels of Ellsworth Kelly, Dan Flavin, and Mark Rothko present a variety of similarities through the mediums of light and color. These characteristics take the artist chapel from a piece of art, to a transcendent
/="/">environment that cocoons the viewer in a space of both the seen and unseen. Each of these …

The Wave Of Digital Revolution: New Trends In The Emergence, Participation, And Presentation Of Metaverse Art, Zijian Zhang

MA Theses

In early 2021, Roblox, known as the first stock in the metaverse, was officially
listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In the same year, the famous American social media giant Facebook changed its name to "Meta" and focused on developing the meta-universe. At the same time, Microsoft, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Byte Jump, Baidu, Tencent and other technology giants laid out metaverse-related industries. Since then, the metaverse has become a new windfall. So what exactly is the metaverse? Meta-universe is a big concept, which is based on digital space to achieve a high degree of integration of the physical world, virtual …

Spirituality And Abstract Art, Hao Zheng

MA Theses

Through a close analysis of abstract art and metaphysics (ontological and psychical), the paper examines how metaphysics might be related to abstract art, as well as the early emergence of abstract art in diverse cultures around the world, and its development from the 19th to the 20th century in the modern art world. The paper conducts an examination of some modern abstract art pioneers, as perceived by general public, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Agnes Pilton, who
experimented with the art form in the 19th and 20th centuries, and their intentions based on metaphysics: spirituality and mythology are included in …

Djurberg & Berg: A Relationship Saga, Johanna Graflund

MA Theses

Djurberg & Berg is one of the most famous artistic duos in today’s contemporary global art market. This thesis will pinpoint crucial relationships and important career milestones that helped them achieve international recognition and success. As this thesis argues, one of the most important relationships is with Moderna Museet. Moderna Museet is a well-renowned top-tier museum that brings legitimacy to the artists it shows. As a government-funded museum, it is responsible for promoting Swedish art, and artists can not go unnoticed.
Along with Moderna Museet, the duo has established vital support from major
institutions such as the Fondazione Prada and …

The Artist As Surveillant: The Use Of Surveillance Technology In Contemporary Art, Claire O'Neill

MA Theses

Artists have long been called observers, voyeurs, and watchers, and with a
/="/">particular interest in human behavior and society, they frequently use unknowing
/="/">passersby as their subjects for works. Curators and scholars explored how artists put citizens under surveillance with photography and videography, which dates back to the early 1900s, years before governments deployed surveillance systems. Since the 1980s, artists have explicitly explored surveillance technology and theory to alert viewers to the rise of surveillance. Today, this genre is called artveillance, a term coined by Andrea Mubi Brighenti in 2010 to categorize art that explicitly deals with surveillance. …

Keith Haring And Jean-Michel Basquiat: Visionaries Of The Legendary Art Movement Of The Eighties In Downtown, New York City, Ritu Cipy

MA Theses

The 1980s in New York Downtown culture was about rebellion. A vibrant community of young artists had occupied Lower Manhattan; interested in various art forms like painting, music, dance and theatre. The community thrived in an area largely ignored by Ronald Reagan’s presidency. It was an explosion of creativity that has had reverberations ever since. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s and Keith Haring’s art grew out of that zeitgeist. Their art was an uprising against a world that did not support their talent. Their need to enforce a social change prompted them into
using their work as a call to action. Their illegal …

The Currency (Volume 1, Issue 1), Elsa Akesson, Claudio Castillo, Sophie Delaplaine, Jade Wu, Maria Paula Suarez

The Currency--SIA Student Magazine

Table of Contents

Page 2: Elsa Akesson, "Kids of Morondava," 2020, oil & acrylic on linen, 130 x 97 cm.

Page 4: An Interview with Generative Artist Claudio Castillo by Sophie Delaplaine, SIA-London '22

Page 9: Jade Wu, "Grain Rain," 2020, oil on canvas, 24 x 36"

Page 11: Navigating the Artworld: My Personal Journey as an Emerging Artist through the Pandemic by Maria Paula Suarez, SIA-NY '23

Reclamation, Laura Day Webb

MA Projects

This exhibition will take the form of a group show of African artists who weave
/="/">cultural heritage with the contemporary, to challenge Western perceptions of African art and culture. Artists Wole Langunju (Nigeria), Prudence Chimutuwah (Zimbabwe), Lincoln Mwangi (Kenya), Moira Bushkimani (Kenya), and Angèle Etoundi Essamba (Cameroon) are confirmed to participate. In addition to the contemporary works by these artists on display, two Nigerian Gèlèdé masks have been generously loaned from the private collection of Olusanya Ojikutu, one from the early 20th century and, the other, whose dating is undetermined. In showcasing these works in tandem, the exhibition creates …

Fpi Art Initiative: A Romanian Perspective, Through The Looking Glass, Francesca Popescu

MA Projects

The FPI (Francesca Popescu Ife) Art Initiative is a curatorial business that focuses on creating pop-up exhibitions featuring emerging and mid-career artists from countries that are not as widely represented in New York or other major art markets. The foundation of this company is to form partnerships with real estate, hospitality, and public venues to host curated pop-up exhibitions throughout New York City and the Hamptons with future goals to expand nationally. The objective is to showcase artwork within a home environment where individuals and collectors interested in art and design can view and discover new artists exhibited within a …

History Of Fashion Installations As Art Exhibitions And Their Impact On The Public’S Perspective On Culture And Community, Arabella Riley

MA Theses

The current study targeted the problem of the relationship among the notions of fashion, art, and culture. The study aimed to determine the potential role of fashion brands and artists in the transformation of modern culture. Additionally, the study sought to analyze the forms of collaboration between fashion and arts, and their commercial and conceptual value. As to the research methods, qualitative secondary data review using thematic analysis methodology was utilized. The research findings included the recognition of the significant role of modern fashion and arts in the transformation of the public culture. Furthermore, it was revealed that different formats …

The Printmaking Boom And Its Effect On The Future For The Market For Prints And Multiples, Helen H. Condo

MA Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the history of the market for prints and multiples beginning with the print renaissance of the 1960s to discover the underlying drivers of a successful editions market and make predictions for the future. Before the print boom of the 1960s, driven by the departure of printmakers from Europe during World War II, who reinvigorated a passion for the artistic process, printmaking was considered that of a craft. Once it was elevated from its secondary status, due to excitement from Contemporary artists and institutional accreditation, a market structure was solidified. By examining the …

The Private Art Collector’S Foundation In France: Issues And Implications For The Cultural Landscape, Milena Berman

MA Theses

The last two decades have witnessed an explosion in the number of private art spaces worldwide. From Bentonville, Arkansas, to Naoshima, Japan, hundreds of impressive structures built by star architects have been funded by private individuals and corporations to house collections of modern and contemporary art, often in unlikely places. The famously-termed “Bilbao effect” in which a grand museum structure is set up outside of the established art capitals of the world, thus putting the city “on the map” of cultural tourism, has become a widespread trend. The examples vary greatly and range from small private “home museums”
/="/">made …

How Nfts Are Driving The Latest Evolution Of Art From Physical To Digital In A Pandemic Age., Isabel Dominguez De Haro

MA Theses

Prior to 2014, the art industry did not know a lot about NFTs and the benefits of
blockchain technology. That is because when the technology was created in 2008,
it had nothing to do with art. In fact, it was primarily developed as a way to
decentralize a broken financial system.1 And, even when the art industry began
successfully using the technology in 2017, it was the digital art world and not
traditional artists, galleries, auction houses, or dealers who first recognized the
benefit of using digital tokens to represent ownership of a unique asset. So why
now are NFTs …

Selling Transcendence: The Rise Of Experience And The Big Business Of Immersive Art, Emeline Callaway

MA Theses

There has been an explosion of immersive art experiences over the past few years. Even as the pandemic has taken a toll on tourism, immersive art ventures and experimental museums have expanded around the world, drawing significant crowds and offering investors an inside into a new, emerging industry. This thesis ties these new experiential businesses to the history of art through an analysis of immersive artistic exploration over time and connects the current forms of investment to the history of immersive art patronage. Exploring the relationship between major economic shifts and the development of the art market, this thesis explains …

Distorted Icons In Contemporary Art: An Examination Into How We Know What We Know And Why, Alessandra Ruggiero

MA Projects

The purpose of this exhibition, Distorted Icons in Contemporary Art: An Examination into How We Know What We Know and Why, is to explore the nature of icons, specifically contemporary renditions of modern or traditional icons. Colloquially, icons are a symbol of something well-known or an image that is easily recognizable. Traditionally, icons refer to religious figures, most commonly devotional paintings in Roman Catholic and Orthodox Greek churches and are used as a means of prayer to represent peace, piety and faith. However, what constitutes an icon in Western contemporary culture has changed significantly. Devotional images have been replaced by …

Contemporary Textiles: Unraveling White Feminist Discourse, Meredith Friedman

MA Theses

In recent decades, attention to textile art has flourished. The growth of contemporary studies committed to revising fiber’s hierarchical categorization represents a discursive turn heavily weighted within feminist inquiry. The interrelation between textile techniques and constructs of femininity and domesticity was at the base of a robust interdisciplinary field of feminist theory developing around the 1970s in the US. Often referred to as the second wave of feminism, this era experienced scholars and artists proposing the medium’s capacity to counter the elusive genre’s marginalization and, by extension, presenting textile’s ability to subvert notions of gender difference. This analysis aims to …

More Than Just Middlemen: The Legacy And Influence Of Art Dealers Joseph Duveen, Peggy Guggenheim And Leo Castelli On Shaping Art Collections, Valencia Tong

MA Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine whether art gallerists are replaceable in the current climate in which the plea for removing the middlemen has been growing. The speed and ease of art transactions through digital platforms provide an alternative to the relationship-based in-person elements of the art world. Before the pandemic, the art market was seen as notoriously opaque, and gallerists have been stereotyped as middlemen who take high commission from art sales. However, art gallerists have played an important role throughout art history, not only buying and selling works of art like traders, but also shaping the …

The Brave New Virtual Art World The Evolution Of Digital Art: Nfts And Their Effects On The Art Market In 2021, Sophie Delaplaine

MA Theses

The first half of 2021, NFT crypto art captured both the public’s attention and the art market due to the escalation of sales prices and the auction houses acceptance of cryptocurrencies. As an artform, digital art is not new. It began in the 1960s and 1970s with roots as early as the 1940s. During this evolution the lines between technology and art have intersected, often become blurred and in many cases have merged into new artforms. Even when scholars trace the origins of digital art to present day it is difficult to tell if scientists are influencing artists or artists …

Index Of Mind, Ziqing Gao

MA Projects

Li Xiangming: Index of Mind, is an exhibition focuses on the artist’s recent productions and his contemplation of “object” and “its relations.” The collection demonstrates the artist’s freewill of creation and his hope of conveying his care and bring attention to the group of people who has been neglected in the trace of history. Li has not only been dedicated to express the living condition and mental state of a certain region, though to express the life and the will to live shared by all through his use of ordinary materials and subject matters with collective memories. This exhibition could …

Helen Frankenthaler : The Calculus For Gender Neutrality Within The Post Abstractionist Color Field Movement, Aelxandra H. Dodge

MA Theses

In a decade marked by the omnipresence of black-and-white television, McCarthyism, the end of the Korean War and the fledgling sounds of rock n’ roll, the 1950s invited American artists to utilize color in forms and abstractions to challenge the domesticated, safe boundaries established by European masters. The 1950s perpetuated dominate male, decision–making stereotyping while subordinating females as submissive, adorned homemakers. Sandwiched between the creative genius and evolution of the U.S abstract expressionist movement of the 1940s and the emerging pop artists of the 1960s, the 1950s signaled the development and the ascendency of Helen Frankenthaler. As a woman artist …

The Reemergence Of Celebrity Imagery In Twenty-First Century Art, Maria Olsson Skalin

MA Theses

The frequent reappearance of artistic celebrity imagery and portraits is something to which I have paid particular attention in the last five years of having studied art and art history, and from having worked intimately with contemporary works of art in the commercial art sector. The artist who I was particularly taken with who has for years been relying on found images of celebrities as source material for his art is Sam McKinniss, and my fascination with him is what led me to pursue this study. Observing the trajectory of McKinniss’ career, as well as having interest in depicting the …

Radical Queer Gazes : How Lesbian And Nonbinary Contemporary Photographers Are Destabilizing The Male Gaze, Eliza Mcdonough

MA Theses

Laura Mulvey’s 1975 essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema laid the groundwork for feminist theory surrounding the objectification of women in media by introducing the concept of the male gaze. Since its publication, theorists and critics have responded by proposing the possibility of alternate gazes such as the female gaze, the black gaze, and the queer gaze. This thesis will analyze those responses along with the psychoanalytical backing of Mulvey’s original theory to determine how the heteropatriachal structure Mulvey presents can be dismantled through alternative identity gazes. Mulvey’s original proposition is limited by her focus on the relationship between white …

Thoughts Around The Psychological Attributes Of Fascist Aesthetics, Carolina Mimi King

MA Theses

This paper aims to outline a series of thoughts around the topic of fascist aesthetics. In 1981, Benjamin Buchloh argued that the revival of representational forms after abstraction signaled a political regression toward authoritarianism. It is the hope of this analysis to expand on Buchloh’s argument in light of the recent claims of fascist revival, particularly in the United States. Looking at aesthetic examples of definitive fascism from the early 20th century as well as the aesthetic culture from the latter part of the 20th century around the time Buchloh was writing, this project can function as a lens through …

On The Fluidity Of Honey And Fugitivity Of Sound In Trauma, Ecstasy, And Black Radical Tradition, Evgenia Grant

MA Theses

From Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological perspective to Derridean postructuralist view, to an intersectional force traversing somatic, social, political, and cultural, sound, in its non-linear epistemology, breaks barriers between forms and escapes any structured definitions. Like the insidious stickiness of honey, sound’s viscosity invaginates, spreads onto the interior, and, by triggering memories and the somatic, threatens the very totality of our identities. At that rupturing moment, we are not the ones subjecting sound to be known as an object; instead, in its fugitive protest and agency, sound flips the roles of the knower and the known and establishes new possibilities of relating to …

“Whose Utopia?” Kimsooja & Bottari Utopia, Younghee Kim Wait

MA Theses

This thesis will explore the progressive evolution of utopia and utopianism in order to answer the question: “Whose utopia?" in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on people who were already marginalized, disadvantaged, and discriminated against.

I will first review the writings of Sir Thomas More, Ernst Bloch, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Owkui Enwezor, and Jose Estaban Muñoz tracing the progressive evolution of utopian ideals. I will then introduce and survey the artist, Kimsooja’s oeuvre in relation to salient features from my review of utopia's progression, and gradually revealing her aesthetics of making as revealing utopian …