This is a strange and scary time to be making art. Wars continue to rage in Ukraine and Gaza, and a looming United States presidential election could spell the return to power of a charismatic leader with fascist tendencies whose most fervent followers regard him as a kind of savior. These conditions are not so different from those in the late 1920s and ’30s in Europe, when Surrealism flourished as artists labored to process the horrors of World War I and the lead-up to WWII. It just so happens that 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Surrealism (see a handy “Syllabus” on the subject in our new issue), and perhaps not so coincidentally, artists have lately been revisiting the movement. Painter Stephanie Temma Hier, one of 20 artists showcased in this New Talent issue, posits that, “in an absurd world, the only sane response is Surrealism.” In a piece on another latter-day Surrealist, senior editor Emily Watlington writes that Trey Abdella’s “subject, American decline, feels both timeless and timely.”
Our present moment contains another wrinkle that, while less consequential than wars or elections, nonetheless affects the conditions of art-making. Since last year’s New Talent issue, the market for work by younger and emerging artists has taken a nosedive. Painters whose work was doubling and tripling in price at auction saw those prices come back down to earth. Yes, this directly affects only the tiny sliver of artists at the top of the market, but it provides noteworthy background for anyone making art today: when the fever for hot young painters subsides, the action gets more interesting. Our intention with the New Talent issue has never been to pick winners for the market, but perhaps collectors will be more inclined these days to direct attention to artists working outside the usual bounds, with unusual materials, like Eric Oglander and Haena Yoo, or in performance, like Pedro Zylbersztajn and mandla.
Outside the New Talent package, seasoned artists discuss how they’re grappling with the urgent issues of our time. In an interview with executive editor Andy Battaglia about his current exhibition at MASS MoCA, Steve Locke says “the warning signs are all there about what is happening in American life: contempt for certain kinds of people, hatred of women, violence against Black people. It’s almost like an orgy of violence against Black people.” Later in the interview, he wonders, “when did it become OK to show Black people being killed on TV?” Two days before this issue went to press, TV stations around the US were alive with body-cam footage released by Illinois State Police showing one of them fatally shooting an unarmed 36-year-old Black woman in her own home. Truly, when will things change?
