Tag Archives: final project

For my final project, I plan to explore some of the problems and hegemonic forces at play in the global capitalist art market, then examine possible solutions to these issues and ways to restructure the art market. One of the biggest issues with the market is in supply and demand, with the market only supporting a small fraction of the many working artists today, as only a few “star artists” are able to sell their works (sometimes for astronomical prices)  while most artists are excluded from the market and many are forced to find work in outside fields. These artists ranging from Indigenous artisans to non-working art graduates face similar problems having been excluded from the art market, such as appropriation of their art and the simple fact that they are unable to make a living on their work alone, forced to use other means of survival such as finding unrelated work or depending on government welfare.

In the project, I plan to look at a few case studies examining how communities deal with these problems, such as Native-American artisans reappropriating means of production to create their own companies and artist collectives creating self-sufficient, Marxist communities outside of the global market, and maybe use the mapping features to create a geographical map of these communities. I could also look at the types of art and movements meant to counter the global art market and existing outside of this commodified sphere, such as public art and protest art.