THE MILLENNIAL STEREOTYPE:

HOW TODAY’S MOST SOUGHT-AFTER YOUNG ARTISTS DEFY THE TYPECAST

In February 2010, the Pew Research Center published a report that attempts to characterize the Millennial Generation based on telephone survey responses . The report used the following terms and phrases to summarize the findings in reference to Millennials: “self-expressive,” “liberal,” “on course to become the most educated generation in American history,” “[as possessing] technological exceptionalism,” “confident,” “more racially tolerant than their elders,” and “most open to change.”

Others are not quite so favorable when characterizing Millennials. Ron Alsop, a regular contributor to the Wall Street Journal, describes Millennials as “entitled,” “high-maintenance,” and “[as having] feelings of superiority” in his article “The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace.”T

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It’s certainly not uncommon for particular attributes to similarly be ascribed to a generation. Gen-Xers are often described as entrepreneurial, cynical and well-educated, and the Baby Boomers before them are cited as being carrer-centered, goal-oriented and self-reliant. But in a postmodern world where there is rarely any coherency in anything from politics to art, is there any value in such broad statements about the generation that is currently coming of age in a world of pluralities?

Artists are part of a longstanding tradition of cultural criticism, and this new Millennial Generation of artists is no different. Highly aware of the stereotypes placed on them, many young artists openly denounce, analyze or embrace them through their work.

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This interaction with generational stereotypes is beginning to make headway into art spaces. A February 2015 exhibition at Hawaii’s ‘Iolani Gallery featured young Hawaiian artists who explicitly addressed the Millennial stereotypes and the issues such a generalization raises.

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The Point, 2014 and Word Life, 2014, image courtesy of ‘Iolani Gallery

One of the show’s curators, Erika Enomoto, admitted, “Some [artists] didn’t want to be part of the exhibition. They didn’t want to be lumped into the [narcissistic] category. And yet, some artists said, ‘that describes me.’”

This particular show is valuable for the conversation surrounding Millennials precisely because there was no consensus among the artists that such generalizations are either accurate, beneficial, or detrimental. The show illustrates some of the fundamental issues that come out of generalizing people based on when they were born.

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Even if a young artist does not explicitly react to the stereotypes of Millennials through their work as the ‘Iolani artists did, they indirectly participate in the conversation through their choices of subject matter, content, form, and materials. Each of these choices can either conform to or resist what one might expect from stereotypical Millennial artwork: pieces that emulate graphic design, use technology as a medium, focus on the self, and shirk art-historical references in favor of looking towards the future.

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Young artist Jason Woodside abstracts the natural world by evoking graphic design in his acrylic paintings.

Landscape, Jason Woodside, 2014, image courtesy of jasonwoodside.com

Perhaps it is partially due to the lack of coalescence in a postmodern age that it is difficult to pigeonhole today’s young artists. Some of the art world’s most prominent Millennials, in fact, discuss universal issues that affect all generations such as racial politics, scientific advances, and gender identity rather than focusing their art on themselves. Others reject the use of technology in their works, and instead use traditional materials and even evoke past art movements.

Here are three of today’s most influential coming-of-age artists who defy the Millennial stereotypes through their art and dominate today’s art market.

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LUCIEN SMITH: RAIN PAINTINGS AND PROCESS ART

Millennial painter Lucien Smith refers to formalism and minimalism in his works – a clear nod to movements of the past. His Rain Paintings series, in particular, emphasizes the materiality of the art-making process. Rather than making his work in Photoshop, as the Wall Street Journal claims many Millennial artists do, Smith fills fire extinguishers with paint and allows the aesthetics of chance to form his work.

Though Smith has only been on the art scene for a handful of years, his work fetches up to $200,000 at Sotheby’s auction house.

Rain Painting, 2011, image courtesy of OHWOW Gallery

OSCAR MURILLO: MIGRATION AND CULTURAL IDENTITY

Oscar Murillo, a Colombian artist raised in London, casts his artist’s gaze outward onto migration, cultural assimilation and displacement – issues that affect millions of people around the world. His work is made up of materials and words that are displaced, and the movement of the paint across the canvas makes a visual reference to the movement of people across borders.

Like Smith, Murillo’s work has similarly reached astounding prices on the art market with some canvases selling for $400,000. Rather than basking in his new-found celebrity and fortune, however, Murillo continues to live a relatively understated life in London. “I came to this by simply working,” he told the New York Times. “It’s the market, and that has nothing to do with me. I’m just trying to keep things normal. I’ve had to live below my means for so long that I’m keeping it that way.”

Dark Americano, 2012, image courtesy of Saatchi Gallery

HUGH SCOTT-DOUGLAS: PATTERN AND THE CURRENCY OF IMAGES

Hugh Scott-Douglas gained notoriety through his cyanotypes (an early photographic process) printed on textiles. His work, like Smith’s, is also about the physicality of the materials he uses and the exploration of surfaces.

Scott-Douglas also speaks about the “currency of images” and how particular images are “inflated or deflated.” He especially draws upon old silent films in his artwork that focuses on the translation of images.

Scott-Douglas’ work has garnered up to $60,000 in art auctions.

Untitled, 2012, image courtesy of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum