When Art Masquerades As Activism And Activism Masquerades As Art

In Los Angeles, a mixture of identity politics, influencer culture, and activism combine in a whirlwind of delusion and shockingly bad art. The art world is dominated by fresh graduates of art school that are already attaching themselves to the newest social justice craze in hopes of local fame. They know they are shallow, they know L.A. culture is shallow — so they must stretch themselves beyond belief to prove that they are not.

Artists in L.A. rarely position themselves as craftsmen, but more as agents of social justice. It is harder and harder to find practicing artists anywhere that haven't attended an academy or are indulging in their craft rather than the optics of social change. In a kind of social contagion of overcorrection, the artwork that is constructed then becomes social commentary, hopelessly templated, created specifically with the local politic in mind.  It's a scene that puts talent in the backseat and lets political activism, cruddy ironic naivete, and Instagram become the driving force.

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An overwhelming amount of the artwork itself takes the form of call-to-action signage rather than engaging in picture-making. Artists who do not tow this line will invariably struggle to get their work any meaningful recognition. Their works rest in the shadows of banner-type artwork that simply spell out the hits verbatim. Calls to “smash the patriarchy” or “tear down the system” in bold, cruddy letters lack any attempt at tackling the nuance of creation or self-expression.

It’s as if the art in LA strives to mimic the placards of popular protests by simply writing their grievances on pre-stretched pre-fabricated industrial canvases, without having to go through the process of actual picture painting. The art world in general — the “scene”, if you will, is full of painters who cannot paint, sculptors who cannot produce form, and performance artists that indulge in performative nonsense. The art schools grip on the contemporary art world — well, almost all artists nowadays graduated from an art school and produce work and exhibitions that feel utterly like homework.

Taking its cues from the post-modernism ideology, the political identity hierarchy pyramid has been strategically inverted. In this dynamic, talent, dedication, or singularity of voice are essentially ignored. It is an obvious and all too transparent attempt to reward anyone who can check off as many minority boxes as possible. In this inversion, the straight white male in theory is sent to the back of the line. After all, being white and male and heterosexual is not a good thing in the world of social justice.

I know we are not supposed to notice, but if you look closely, it is hard not to realize that if you are black, you make Afro-centric art that focuses on the historic injustice of your people. If you are female, you make feminist art that does more or less the same. If you are wheelchair-bound, you will likely be groomed to make art that puts that fact front and center. 

What could one make of such a coincidence? What are the origins of this dominating thought process? What these artists have in common is that they are products of an art school machine and live with an art school mentality.

Here is where they so often succumb to institutionalized thinking that clearly seeks to weaponize one’s political identity, with an emphasis on personalizing victimhood via their art. In this way, you get a straight line from art school to self-exploitation. Whatever your identity may be, whatever your art may look like, if it does not speak to social justice or victimhood status — or better yet, if it can’t — it will likely remain in the shadows of so much of the art that does.

Add to this fact a plethora of galleries seeking to cash in on this commentary to survive and you create an environment reminiscent of the echo chamber phenomenon; all the artists indeed become angels in Los Angeles, preaching to the choir in lockstep fashion. What seems to be a culture of artists trying “to do good and be good” on the surface reveals itself to be a culture of following fads — artists looking to promote themselves and their work by either signaling their virtue or indulging in narcissistic victimhood status gloating.

In Los Angeles, there is a lot of art masquerading as activism and activism masquerading as art. The lines between the two are so blurred that it is utterly useless to try and make a distinction, or better yet find any artist that can do both or either, convincingly.

Art born out of victimhood makes criticism of it virtually impossible — a standing ovation is the only acceptable response. Every artist is amazing, so they say, powerful, so we hear. While there are many artists still in Los Angeles who would agree with much of what I am expressing, they would risk being canceled, so to speak, if they were to speak out about the phenomenon of half-baked work being celebrated by its motive, not by its quality.

Let me be quite clear — there is talent in ALL communities, races, genders, orientations, eye colors, schools of thought, and mediums. Talent, voice, work ethic, and drive are dispersed democratically-whatever way you want to group people together if you should choose to (well, you shouldn’t). But when politics and identity converge in art, the art, the viewers, and the craft lose all perspective.

If you want to live an artistic life of meaning, run from this. To be successful in this way is to betray everything an artist sets out to do. All in all, the contemporary art world is full of art flies, power-hungry culture vultures, and disingenuous artists who only first picked up the brush as recently as a few months ago, but are already receiving critical reviews and studio visits.  For it is they who made the proper propitiations strategically. This does nothing but cement their own delusion.

I believe the role of the artist is to rid themselves of delusion. In Los Angeles, the delusion blankets the city like a diseased fog — as thick as the miasma that chokes it.

JSV
2023