P3

1. THE
MILLENNIAL
STEREOTYPE:
HOW TODAY’S MOST
SOUGHT-AFTER YOUNG
ARTISTS DEFY THE
TYPECAST

2. 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.”
THE
MILLENNIAL
STEREOTYPE

3. 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.
THE
MILLENNIAL
STEREOTYPE

4. 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.
THE
MILLENNIAL
STEREOTYPE
The Point, 2014 and Word Life, 2014, image courtesy of ‘Iolani Gallery

5. 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.
THE
MILLENNIAL
STEREOTYPE

6. 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.
THE
MILLENNIAL
STEREOTYPE
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

7. 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.
THE
MILLENNIAL
STEREOTYPE

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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