Spike Art Magazine #80 – The State of the Arts

A sense of major flux is spreading in the art world – and not only among its pessimists. Under pressure from reactionary politics and its own “now more than ever” imperatives, so much in art is transforming: criticism into a flashy rubber stamp; art schools into trauma industries; fairs into 3D-PDFs; museums into everything for everybody; and art-making into a moral protocol. Some artists are responding by dropping out, going Web3, or protesting genocide; a few are launching their own galleries or wellness brands; plenty are still just painting painting painting.

This issue dropping a pin so that the next time we go off road, we can find a way back to our last clear perspective – a bit jaded, a little dizzy, but faithful as ever that artists are finding our way forward.

With Travis Diehl on riskless art; Domenick Ammirati on getting ahead by getting hot; Anna Kornbluh on culture as pure vibe; an interview with O’Flaherty’s Jamian Juliano-Villani; Aodhan Madden on Maggie Lee, Ser Serpas & K8 Hardy; Jaakko Pallasvuo and Kristian Vistrup Madsen talk dropping out of the art world; a primer on decentralized social media; Elham Dawsari’s postcard from Riyadh; Nicolas Bourriaudon this year’s Venice Biennale; and so much more.