SISTEMA GALLERY presents a large-scale project aimed at analyzing the trends that have emerged over the last decade in contemporary art. The gallery identifies ten trends in the Russian art market that are gaining popularity and remain in demand being reflected in the works of young artists. Fifty-five authors at the beginning of their artistic careers have been invited to participate in the project. The exhibition includes more than 250 works among which are paintings, graphics, objects, installations, photography, video, ceramics, glass, metal and textiles.

Contemporary art in the 2010-2020s is located somewhere between two opposing trends: the influence of digital technologies and neural networks, and a return to craft and handmade practices – textiles, ceramics, glass, metal. In many ways, the new trends are shaped by the search for alternative expressive means and by the simplification and emergence of new technical opportunities to work both with materials and with a range of software. Stylistically, three main trends can be distinguished here: post-digital art, new symbolism and surrealism, new naïve. The word “new” means a new interpretation of style, similarity of working techniques. A separate trend that is developing can be labeled as “plein air studies”, in which artists comprehend personal and general history through the memory of particular sites. 

Visual trends and key meanings in contemporary art are reflected in the Venice Biennale, which shows the current agenda every two years. In 2022, it was reflections on posthuman and surrealism, dominated by objects, technology and painting. In 2024, it is a question of national and cultural identity and handmade practices. The Venice Biennale, on the one hand, summarizes the trends in art and, on the other hand, promotes their further development.

10 trends in contemporary art

In the 2020s, a new wave of naive style (1) became noticeable, which manifested itself in design, clothing and tattoos. The fashion for spontaneity, the opportunity to “relax and be yourself” brought ease and humor, cozy domestic scenes, and funny characters to art. This was reflected not only in painting, but also in ceramics. A childlike simplified manner is distinctive here, with seemingly irregular compositions, mistakes, and vibrant colors.

Digital technology and internet culture (2), as parts of an integral contemporary visual experience, are reflected in art, forming a new hybrid artistic language. This post-digital influence manifests itself in different ways. On the one hand, in opposition to the refinement of digital graphics, artists find pictorial expression in the early video game animation of the 1990s-2000s, simple polyangular graphics, random distortions, and glitches. On the other hand, the imaginative multiverse of contemporary video games and movies promotes surreal plots (3) depicting undefined spaces and images. The trend towards surrealism is also related to the fact that many artists sketch in graphic programs where it is possible to collage, generate and refine the image. 

Neural networks (4) have rapidly entered the field of artists’ experiments in the 2020s as a tool for creating and refining works of art: image, video animation, text, sound, three-dimensional forms and their 3D printing. AI-generated materials with an element of random compilations are fantastic and surreal on their own, and have a corresponding impact on art.

The philosophy of speculative realism of the 2000s had a significant impact on contemporary art, which raised new questions about the world beyond human perception. Reflecting on this, object-oriented art was formed (5), which turned to the search for “extra-human” forms and images of the “reality failure” through experimental techniques and outsider practices. It can be stated that speculative realism contributed to the return of symbolism and surrealism in art, including painting, just as on the cusp of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries mystics turned to reflecting on spaces and images beyond understanding. 

The Venice Biennale 2022 under the general theme “The Milk of Dreams” was largely devoted to these reflections on the “posthuman”: transformations, reincarnations, fairytale worlds, fantastic creatures, mysticism, spiritualism, dreams, human relations with technology, reconsideration of the place of the humanity in nature, hypotheses of the distant future. At this Biennale, a large cast of 20th century surrealist artists was displayed, including forgotten names, which also updated the interest in this direction.

Craft trends have emerged in the search for alternative expressive media and through the simplification and development of new technical possibilities of working with materials.

Ceramics (6) remains popular, having experienced incredible growth over the past decade. Moving away from studio rigor and functionality, ceramics has become a field for experimentation, a new sculptural material. Many artists have added this medium to their practices, thus stylistically ceramics has divided itself along dominant lines: new surrealism, new naïve, conceptual projects, object-oriented art. The new wave has a tendency towards abstract forms, a certain apparent carelessness and randomness, which makes ceramics a living, transforming object. 

The similarly free approach is evident in metal work (7). Machine printing on metal instead of engraving has been added as a new technique. Glass (8) is mastered not as a decorative, but as an artistic, conceptual material.

Textiles (9) occupy a special place in the 2020s, experiencing an increase in popularity: fabric painting, objects, weaving and needlework. In a foreign context, textile practices are mainly associated with artists’ turning to the traditional crafts of their peoples, attempting to conceptualize their cultural and national identity through them (Africa, India, etc.). This may have been the impetus in the 21st century for many other artists to expand the media and engage in applied techniques. The Venice Biennale 2024 with its generalizing theme of “Foreigners Everywhere”, related to migration issues and decolonization, is indicative in terms of work with textiles and handicrafts.

In connection with the updating of the question of the search for identity through a place or terrain (on a geographical or yard scale), a direction that can be labeled as “plein air studies” is developing (10). Place is seen here as a storage of memory and life experience. Artists reflect on this through specific or collective nostalgic images expressed through painting, graphics, objects, and discovered objects. 

Curator: Nadya October