If the rise of AI art has you worried about the future of your creative business, take a deep breath. In this episode of Art Crush, Fi and Paula are peering into the future of the art world, and spoiler alert: the future is handmade, human, and entirely in our control.
We’re cutting through the noise of tech-bro billionaires to talk about why the AI bubble is destined to burst, and why art buyers are craving authentic, lumpy, human-made creations now more than ever.
We also dive into the radical act of taking back your power as a working artist. We’re deconstructing the traditional, gatekept art establishment, challenging the idea that you have to pay a gallery 50% commission, and discussing how to sell directly to your audience on your own terms.
Plus, we celebrate the true mother of abstract art, Hilma af Klint, and remind every woman artist listening that it is time to stop being quiet and start blowing our own trumpets!
In this episode, we cover:
- Why the future of the art world will heavily favor handmade, physical art.
- The ethical and financial reasons the AI art trend is fundamentally flawed.
- How to bypass traditional art institutions, skip gallery commissions, and sell directly to your buyers.
- Rewriting art history: Why women artists like Hilma af Klint are finally getting their due.
- How technology allows us to organize globally and build our own independent art communities.
Upcoming Exhibition Alert!We are beyond thrilled to announce our upcoming show with the 51% Art Collective, The Wild Within. We are tossing away the accepted “rules” of how art shows should look and doing things our way!When: Friday, October 23rdWhere: Artcore Gallery in Derby, UK
If you loved this episode, please follow, rate, and review Art Crush on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. New episodes drop every Saturday!
00:00:00 Speaker 2: Welcome to Art crush with artist Fi Marks and Paula Telizyn, where we talk about being an artist, having an art business and being a woman who’s an artist.
00:00:22 Speaker 2: Hello, fee.
00:00:24 Speaker 3: Hi, Paula. today we are discussing what we think might be, as I say, we don’t know. We don’t have our crystal ball in front of us. But what might be the future of the art world? Where will it all be in fifty years time or in twenty years time? we’ve been doing a bit of research and we just thought we’d open up that question. So Paula, over to you. What do you think is going to happen in the world of art in the next few years?
00:01:04 Speaker 2: what we can see it right now that there is a trend towards handmade art.
00:01:12 Speaker 3: Hurrah, hurrah! Let’s hear the cheers.
00:01:16 Speaker 2: Yeah. This is something that I predicted. Uh, what was it four years ago when AI burst out it just seemed to me because I’ve lived through the digital art, the rise of digital art as well previously. So thirty years ago, when people started to make and sell digital art in the nineties, late eighties, there was this whole kerfuffle about whether it’s art, whether it’s not art. all of that, whether it was going to, I don’t know, cause harm to traditional artists and everything settled down. Now, having said that, AI art is obviously unethical. It’s built on stolen content. It’s made by computers and it’s averages. And so it’s a different beast. Whereas digital art was made by human hands using computers, AI art is different. So we’re not going to go into the ethics of it. But let’s just say that we understand that part, that there’s issues morally and ethically around it. And the motivations for it are designed to cause harm to the creative industries that aside the future of art is handmade. it’s going to be the lumpy stuff, the stuff that when you walk up to it in a show or in a location, you look at that and you go, I can see a human made this. That’s the future. When people are very sensitive to wanting to ensure that they are buying and supporting local contemporary artists, they are going to be looking for the things that for sure, at least right now. Can’t be made by computers.
00:02:57 Speaker 3: I can hear the visible sigh of relief going out there, because I know there has been huge debate. And as Paula said, we’re not going to go into the ethics of AI, in this broadcast, but people have been concerned that it will be the end of creativity and the end of art. I would say that AI is not a piece of art. There is no such thing as AI art. It is a tool that can be abused by humans to create things that are unethical. I think that’s the difference. But anyway, we were very concerned and obviously the idea of any stolen artwork off people is just outrageous, but they cannot steal, show the paintwork and show hand painted original art in the same way. You will not find An AI piece of artwork that looks like a human hand has created it. I just think it’s hugely reassuring for the public, for art buyers, for artists to know that this is the future. Artists have been frightened by change in the same way that everybody gets frightened by any change, any difference. But when it comes down to it, quality will prevail. People do not want to buy rubbish because you can buy. Cheap stuff that is unethically produced in shops. There’s been a lot about that. Cheap shops, cheap online humans have the choice. And if you don’t buy from these stores, if you don’t buy AI art, then you are actually supporting the handmade industry. as we’ve said on other episodes, you pay for what you get. So I think there will be a definite big push towards that. I think we will also, which is another thing that gladdens my heart to see a continuing, celebration and exhibiting of lesser known artists. Artists from communities that haven’t been represented in the past. that will continue to grow. I don’t think that’s going to go away. I don’t think we are going to go back to saying only Victorian white rich men produced art. I think that is going to continue to be obliterated into the water, which obviously we celebrate that as well. What else, Paula, do you think is going to happen?
00:05:49 Speaker 2: Well, I think that artists need to also educate their audiences about the benefits of handmade art and human made art, so that they understand that the choices aren’t, I’m going to buy something that’s thirty pounds versus three thousand pounds. It’s a choice of supporting the stories and interpretations that are human made. art tells the story, right? So if a human can’t be asked to create the art, why should somebody be asked to consume it? Right? So having that education piece is important. but I think what’s going to happen is we’re seeing this right now is there’s two things going on. There’s a huge rejection of AI by especially the younger generations who understand the implications of everything. I’m seeing the graduation events in the US where whole classes walked out when they brought in a tech bro to toot the benefits of AI, which amazing, wonderful. Keep it up. and the AI bubble is going to burst because every single AI company is in billions, if not trillions of dollars of debt. Because AI does not generate money, it costs. So we are going to actually see this contraction happening. It may be challenging economically, but we’re going to see that, which means that, handmade human made stuff, art, writing, music will all be very critical. Now humans have been making for our entire existence on the planet, even before our particular species existed. We have evidence. I’ve said this a lot, but as archaeology improves and as we find more and more, sites, we can see that art exists even in digs in South Africa with the group, we can see that they have created art on the cave walls. Deliberate intentional lines are there. So why would we as humans stop creating art It just won’t happen. the push to educate our audiences, to choose human made the creating of human made art, and the selling of it will continue. This is a shake up, a hiccup, and once the dust settles, there will still be in favor of our work.
00:08:19 Speaker 3: Another change, which, Paula and I are very passionate about. And as you know, if you’ve been following us for a while, we are part of an art collective called fifty one percent is about changing the perception that people have about art exhibitions, how people see art, how they respond to art. it’s about education and not in a patronizing way, but helping people to read paintings in the same way that they read books. So they need to look at it and see the narrative and understand it, rather than thinking that art is like in a supermarket where you just walk past and wait for something to grab your attention. we are hoping that we are actually at the spearhead of this change we are doing our first shows fifty one percent in October in Artcore in Derby, and we are going to be trying out some of these new ideas about what an art exhibition should look like. This will be developed over the next few years. We’re hoping that other people, because part of our brief is about empowering and supporting other artists. It’s not just about showing our work, we hope we inspire plenty of other artists to show their work and sell their work in a different way, in a way that is about them, not about the institution of art. So that is something that I think I had to mention. Not to be blowing our own trumpet, but I hope that this is something that will change and make art much more accessible to more people and make artists more confident to actually promote and see their art as a business. As you know, we talk about that all the time and take ownership of, selling their art.
00:10:25 Speaker 2: You know what? I think we should blow our own trumpet. To be honest, I think a lot of the things that we are taught, especially as women, be quiet, be nice, be meek, don’t show up loud, don’t draw attention to yourself is a load of crap. So we should blow our own horn and we should be promoting even as artists walking around going, actually, I made this thing. I’m super fucking proud of it come and see it in person. Let’s get together and enjoy ourselves. Let’s do things differently. Let’s toss away the accepted institutions around the art world and around artists, and how we do things in inverted commas and really just shake things up. You know what? Our show is going to be great. It’ll be great. It’ll be done on a shoestring. I’m not going to oversell all the things, but it’s for people internationally who get together and have put our best work forward or we’ll put our best work forward. Right? I’ve seen the pieces that are going in the show. I’m making pieces that are going in the show. I’m super proud of us. That’s due to our own horn.
00:11:32 Speaker 3: Exactly.
00:11:33 Speaker 2: Yeah. The future of art also is artists selling directly to the end consumer. So to the buyers. we know from studies that have been released that that has shot up. I think the number is now twenty percent, which to me is really low, that artists are still choosing to go through institutions, galleries and other bodies to pay them a percentage of the sale in order to make those sales. I think that more artists should be selling directly to their end clients. I think that we should just drop the middle person altogether. This won’t be right for every artist, but it’ll be right for a lot of artists to understand that you can sell directly to your clients and skip paying out the forty or fifty percent commission, which is absolutely ludicrous.
00:12:20 Speaker 3: We talk about a lot of these things, these new ideas. A lot of them have actually been born on this podcast. So you guys out there that have actually helped us and continue to help us with ideas about moving the art industry further on and changing things, systems that are not working. you are actually part of this revolution as much as we are. we really look forward to welcoming you, hopefully in a place in a city near you in the future. we’ve got booked in Derby and we are already planning Toronto for next year. So we look forward to meeting you and for you sharing those ideas with us?
00:13:04 Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely. experiencing art in person and perhaps different ways than you expected. so the future of art, I think, is really in the hands of the artists in us. Yeah. Of us in deciding that we need to question how things are done, not only in the making of art, but in the presenting of art, in the selling of art, in the positioning of artists. Because we’ve given away our power for so long that we need to now redefine what we want and what we want to do in order to create, sell, show and make art accessible. I think that’s that’s the most important thing. this is one of the things that as crappy as AI is, has shown us very clearly the influence of a handful of tech bros billionaires on our entire culture. And it’s time for us, who are billions of people, to take back that power, or at least millions of people take back that power and say, no, you can’t. You can’t decide for us.
00:14:17 Speaker 4: Because I actually think.
00:14:19 Speaker 3: Correct me if I’m wrong, Paula, that historically artists have never had the power or control over their work. Has there ever been a time when they have. Is this the first time in the history of the art world where artists are taking control of their own businesses and their own work?
00:14:38 Speaker 2: I don’t think this is the first time for that specifically, but this is the first time where we can organize in real time globally. This is the first time where we can say, I’m in Canada, you’re in the UK. We are talking face to face very regularly and sorting out ideas, and then you go off and influence your local people. I go off and influence my local people and so it spreads. So I think that this is where I would say, definitively that this is the first time that we can use technology to take our power back and redefine what it means to be an artist. this may not be right for everybody, because I know there are artists that are hell bent on the gallery route or have created success working with dealers and galleries and whatever. That’s fine. You do you because the art world is not a homogenous giant lump. It is made up of parts. So for the people who are dissatisfied with how things are, this is the invitation to question everything and choose a different route.
00:15:46 Speaker 4: Yeah.
00:15:46 Speaker 3: Consider it. That’s all I would say to people. Consider it and do the best route for you as you consider any aspect of your life. What job suits you the best, what house suits you the best, what holiday suits you the best? Deciding on how you sell your art. That is a decision as well. And I think that’s what the difference is, is that that decision has not been made in the past. We’ve been presented with this is the only way you can sell your art.
00:16:15 Speaker 2: aren’t we very lucky to be living in this time as wild as it is to be able to say, I’m hand-making this work, you can see it in person. You can look at my process videos or photos and see it come to life and understand this is human made art, to be consumed by humans and purchased by humans and experienced by humans. So the future of the art world is human.
00:16:45 Speaker 3: It’s also looking quite positive. So let’s celebrate that.
00:16:49 Speaker 2: Absolutely, absolutely. I mean, we can look at all the negatives all day long and that’s all we’ll see. But when we look at the positives, there’s a lot of opportunity that perhaps we didn’t have. with fees leaning towards history, especially, female artists. So fee, who’s been sending me all sorts of information about artists. Who is that abstract artist that you had sent me just recently? Fee.
00:17:13 Speaker 3: Hilde Klimt, who was actually the. Correct me if I’m mispronounced her name, but she was actually is now known to have been the first abstract painter, and she was told quite rightly at the time that her art, the world, wasn’t ready for her art and she was hidden away for twenty, thirty years. But she was actually producing artwork before Kandinsky and before Picasso. Um, and she is actually now being celebrated as the mother of contemporary art.
00:17:50 Speaker 2: Which is.
00:17:51 Speaker 3: Abstract art.
00:17:52 Speaker 2: it’s interesting. all the things that we’re finding out. So we live in a time of information we live in a time of connection, we live in a time where we should be questioning what we accept as known or fact Because, twenty, thirty years ago, anybody would have said entirely. A different artist started abstract art. so these things are important for us to be aware of as artists and to educate our audience with as well. And I think that wraps up this episode of Art crush, because both fee and I are very hot and and wilting here in the weather. So we are going to wrap this up. Don’t forget to like subscribe and follow us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Amazon, and wherever your favorite podcast platforms are. We have new episodes coming out every Friday, and mark your calendars if you are in the UK or want to be in the UK, are show called The Wild Within will be opening on October twenty third, which is a Friday at Artcore Gallery in Derby, so check the show notes for the link to the fifty one percent website and make sure you book. In that time. It’s a chance for you to talk to all four of us in person. See the art and experience how we envision art shows could be and maybe should be, and we’ll see you in the next one.
