Ultra-contemporary art is currently the hottest trend in the market. It’s selling at rocket speed and at higher prices than everything else. But what is ultra-contemporary art, actually? While most people understand the meaning of contemporary art, only few are familiar with ultra-contemporary art. In this post, we are going to shed some light on meaning of ultra-contemporary art and how it’s flipping the market on its head!
One segment of the art market is currently growing faster than all the rest, and that is ultra-contemporary art. Interesting.
But what is ultra-contemporary art, actually?
To understand what ultra-contemporary art means, let’s take a look at the dictionary. Contemporary refers to something that is “belonging to or occurring in the present.” Thus, contemporary art is “marked by characteristics of the present period.”
For an artist to be considered contemporary they need to be “happening, existing, living, or coming into being during the same period of time” and create art that “follows modern ideas in style or design.”
So far so good.
Ultra, on the other hand, is a Latin prefix that can be translated as “extremely,” “excessively” or “exceptionally.”
So, if contemporary art is ‘happening at the present period of time’, then is ultra-contemporary art ‘extremely happening at the present period of time’??
Obviously not. So let’s start with contemporary art…
What is contemporary art, exactly?
The environment artists work in today is very multi-faceted, culturally diverse, and marked by constant technological advancement. The latest inventions are artificial image generators that emerged by the end of 2022.
Now, everyone can ‘create art‘ by typing in a couple of words and then artificial intelligence will return an image based on those prompts. (I talk more about that in my post on whether AI art can be considered real art.)
Fact is that contemporary artists use a wide variety of mediums to reflect on current themes and modern-day society. The objective is not to create art that is visually pleasing or that is commonly considered ‘good art’. Instead, contemporary artists focus more on making art that challenges and questions the traditional ideas of what art should be like.
Oftentimes, contemporary artists deliberately turn away from mainstream art because they favor the notion of ‘artistic pluralism’. That means they take from many different artistic styles and forms, including conceptual art, pop art, minimalism, lowbrow art, performance art, and more.
What is the meaning of ultra-contemporary art, then?
According to Artnet News, ultra-contemporary art “strictly applies to artists born from 1975 to the present day, as a way to bring valuable visibility to the youngest talents with strengthening secondary markets.”
However, depending on whom you ask, ultra-contemporary art may also refer to artists born from 1974, or the works by artists under 40 years old…
As opposed to that, the contemporary art market as such includes artists born after 1945.
But, regardless of whether they are born one year earlier or later, there are a couple of characteristics that apply to all ultra-contemporary artists. First of all, ultra-contemporary artists usually are extremely new to the market.
Secondly, they have a comparatively small track record, meaning they have had only few – or no – exhibitions and gallery representation. Lastly, a lot of ultra-contemporary artists don’t have any formal training in fine arts. They are completely self-taught. (And yes, you can make money as a self-taught artist!)
In one word, it’s me. ´\_(ツ)_/` Just kidding. But my art – and myself as the artist – actually fit that genre…
How is ultra-contemporary art impacting the market?
To put it briefly, ultra-contemporary art is fascinating collectors around the world. As I already mentioned at the beginning of this post, ultra-contemporary art is the fastest growing segment in the market.
To give you an idea, here's the ultra-contemporary art market in numbers:
- Ultra-contemporary art represents 15.5% of the contemporary art market.
- Auction sales of ultra-contemporary art soared 305% during the pandemic between 2019 and 2021.
- 9,640 ultra-contemporary artworks have been sold over the last 12 months between 2021 to 2022.
- Sales generated more than US$420 million, which is a 28% increase compared to the previous year.
- The average price of the five highest selling works went from US$618,000 to US$4.9 million.
- The works of 2,670 artists under 40 years of age have been sold at auctions; this is five times more than 20 years ago.
- 80% of the top 10 artists under 40 are women.
In other words, the ultra-contemporary art market is not only growing at rocket speed, it is also becoming more ‘feminine’. While the market has long been male-dominated, more and more female artists are outstripping their male counterparts.
Leading artists of the movement include Amoako Boafo, Jadé Fadojutimi, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Jonas Wood, Ayako Rokkaku, Angel Otero, Amoako Boafo and Chen Fei.
How is the ultra-contemporary art trend flipping the art world on its head?
Ultra-contemporary art is a relatively new trend that has come up in 2019. On the one hand, the demand for ultra-contemporary art is being driven by a new breed of collectors that are primarily interested in buying the work of their peers. On the other hand, British auction house Phillips is an important driver of this new market trend.
Kevie Yang, head of Phillips Art Advisory, notes that there now is a much larger community of buyers. While it used to take artists many years to sell their work for several thousands of dollars, it can now happen within a year or less, says Yang.
One example is 19-year-old NFT artist Fewocious (aka Victor Langlois). His work ‘Hello, i’m Victor (FEWOCiOUS) and This Is My Life’ auctioned off for a staggering US$2.2 million at Christie’s New York in June 2021. That makes him the youngest artist to sell at the auction house.
Another example is Beeple (aka Mike Winkelmann), born in 1981. His NFT creation ‘Everydays’ sold for US$69 million at Christie’s in March 2022. Shortly after, his ‘Human One’ auctioned off for US$29 million in November the same year. Following that, Beeple had his first exhibition at Jack Hanley Gallery in New York.
Many other blue-chip art galleries have been jumping on the bandwagon. They have discovered ultra-contemporary art to be a lucrative segment and are now adding the works of young artists to attract new audiences and increase sales.
Sotheby’s, for example, has launched a new evening sale in New York called ‘The Now’ where they exclusively sell works that artists created over the past few decades. Likewise, Art Basel Miami Beach has included a special NFT section in 2021, and the Galleria degli Uffizi in Italy has started to exhibit living artists (they only used to show the long-dead masters). And, now they are even selling NFTs of the old masterpieces in art history!
Traditionally, an artist would have to work for at least a decade to achieve some acclaim in the art world, get gallery representation and exhibitions. Only then would their work be ‘popular’ enough to be sold at the top auction houses. Art prices used to be determined by the critical acclaim of the artist, the historical value and quality of their work, etc.
The ultra-contemporary art trend has seemingly flipped the traditional art world on its head.
The recent happenings have shown us that it is now possible to gain a collector base that is willing to pay millions of dollars, even if the artist hasn’t yet reached the steps that were previously necessary.
However, since ultra-contemporary artists are so new to the market and came up so quickly, it becomes harder to apply the same standards as in the past. Nowadays, what determines the true value of a piece of art is how the collector feels about the work and how they can connect it on a personal level.
In consequence, artists don’t need to rely on a middleman (such as a curator or gallery owner) anymore to create exposure for their work. Nowadays, you can showcase and sell your art simply by uploading it to social media, art sharing sites, NFT marketplaces, and perhaps by building your own artist website.
This can be seen as a positive development in the art world because it allows artists to be more independent. And maybe ultra-contemporary art will create a lasting legacy of how we collect art in the long run…
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What’s your take on ultra-contemporary art? Do you create it yourself, maybe in the form of digital art or NFTs? Please leave comments and questions below. I’d love to hear from you! Make sure to sign up for my email list below so you don’t miss out on new blog posts and other cool stuff. ♥
(All images displayed in this post are copyright to their respective owners and solely used for educational purposes.)
