Posting instead of painting? No, the so-called "Instagram Artists" do both, combine high-quality works with presence and important exchange among themselves in the social networks. The exhibition "Friends and Friends of Friends" is now showing the works by the new art stars.
They are the Andy Warhols of today: Jebila Okongwu, who, as a half-Nigerian, deals with the topics of racism and oppression in his works and works off all variations on the banana box. Some of them are now enthroned in the Linz Castle Museum, huge in size, which implies Warhol reverence. Or Gina Beavers, who critically questions the social media world and reinvents Pop Art with her Justin Timberlake grimaces, as does Oli Epp with his brightly colored fantasy creatures, which seem so harmless and yet express social criticism. They all have one thing in common: They present their mostly brightly colored works on internet platforms such as Instagram or TikTok and now form an online community of young artists from all over the world, who also exchange ideas and inspire one another via the platforms - the artist salon of today can be found directly on the mobile phone. With the exhibition "Friends and Friends of Friends", Kultur-GmbH director Alfred Weidinger is making space in the museum for a comprehensive retrospective of this young generation of artists between the ages of 25 and 35 and wants to repeat this every year if possible: "These artists are Andy Warhol in nothing", he alludes to the Pop Art show that was shown at the same place before his time in Linz. Together with the British curator Aindrea Emelife, the London artist Oli Epp - see interview - selected 19 “Instagram artists” for the current presentation, in Linz Inga Kleinknecht curated: “It was important to us that the participating artists became famous not through Instagram, but and also work with a museum claim. " The simultaneously gaudy and sophisticated exhibition in the Linz Castle Museum is of course also accompanied digitally on all channels of Kultur GmbH. Selfies, stories and postings from museum visitors are expressly encouraged!
Translation from German.
