06/16/2026
Interesting article in this morning’s NY Times:
8 Proposals for a Better Art World
Artists on what a more utopian version of their field might look like.
https://www.nytimes.com/issue/t-magazine/2026/06/12/american-utopias-art-issue
By Andrew Russeth
June 15, 2026
There are many reasons to lament the state of the art world. Works are treated as growth assets, structural inequality is pervasive and cash-strapped galleries are closing. Artists are acutely aware of all of this — in March, Josh Kline, who works in installation, film, video and sculpture, published a much-shared essay in October, a typically sedate journal of art history, about the crushing financial challenges New York artists face. But they’re also looking for solutions. In the catalog for his 2025 show at San Francisco’s de Young Museum, the British artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien wrote, “I believe that it’s time to create a new paradigm of visual poetics — not merely as expressions of the present, but as means to reimagine the world itself.”
What would a more utopian art world look like? Below, nine artists offer up visions both modest and lofty.
1. Subsidize Artists
Having a real sense of the value of artists within our society could change how resources are distributed. [Think] about things like the WPA [the Works Progress Administration started by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1935, which employed thousands of artists to make public artworks and other projects]. There’ve been other efforts like that, but very few in the past 50 years. — Rick Lowe, 64, painter and community organizer based in Houston
Imagine if the U.S. — or even just New York State — could tax wealth or income the way that the Germans and Scandinavians do. There’s plenty of money here. We could use it to fund health care, housing and education, as well as the arts. A utopia should have direct funding for artists. It should also take some of the vast amounts of commercial space in New York being kept empty for tax purposes (that keep rents artificially inflated) and give artists free studios. — Josh Kline, 46, artist based in New York
2. Open Doors
When I think about utopia, the word that comes up is “access.” To me that means free museums — not just discounts for seniors and children, but free to everybody. We should all have access to the things that have come before us. — Raven Halfmoon, 34, sculptor based in Norman, Okla.
3. Go Against Nature
An art world where we’re not trading on individual biographies or identities. That would put more work on the viewer, who’d have to do some interpretation. A problem with the professionalized art world is that it’s become overly transactional. Removing the author, the artist, the biography from the conversation may take us a long way. I think it goes against our egos and our nature, but it’d be interesting. — Michelle Grabner, 63, painter, curator and critic based in Chicago, Milwaukee and Waupaca
4. Make Cheaper Art
People think art is for the elite — a lot of artists feel like, “I can’t even afford my own work” — but that’s something I’m trying to change by making affordable sculptures and public works that can be seen by all. After all, my ancestors were making for the community. — R.H.
5. Get Out of New York
I’ve always thought, Why not make your own art world? I don’t think the New York art world’s emphasis on art as a commodity — and the perniciousness of the [art] fair model and auction houses getting involved in contemporary art — has had a positive effect. When you go to places like New Orleans, there’s an incredible art world, and those artists don’t give a damn about what’s happening in Basel. You see that in Detroit, in St. Louis, in Pittsburgh. They’re a community, and they support each other. Some break out and some don’t, but they’ve built something. — Mark Dion, 64, visual artist based in Copake, N.
6. Drop the Western Mind-Set
I’d say that the art of the future will be much more communal and diverse, because it will not just be defined by traditions of the West. Today, there remains a tendency toward a Western canon rather than a genuine openness to other ideas. In an art utopia, there would be an attitude of looking closer and not only seeing otherness but understanding it. — Rirkrit Tiravanija, 64, conceptual and installation artist based in New York, Berlin and Chiang Mai, Thailand
7. Look to Utopias Past
I wrote a biography [“Marsha” (2025)] on [the activist and performer] Marsha P. Johnson, who [in 1970] co-founded Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries, or STAR House. Trans and gender-nonconforming people were largely living on the street or in hourly hotels, but Marsha had this idea that they could collectively rent a home. It meant they could cook together and [have] a greater sense of safety and a place to dream up their social movements. A condition of utopia is not believing that the current reality has to be constantly reproduced. — Tourmaline, 42, artist and filmmaker based in Miami
There’s a period I consider utopian: [the time between the early 1920s and the ’50s when] all the Mexican muralists, Diego Rivera and his friends, were doing something for the people. They were Communists. They were committed to showing these ideas. That’s what I call being utopian — going beyond yourself. — Simone Fattal, 83, sculptor based in Paris
8. Act More Like a Poet
In a utopian version of our art world, [it’d be more] like how a poet writes poetry: a lot of chance-taking, a lot of failures. You’d imagine there’d also be less suffering, less fighting, but those things are part of life. As an artist, you’d still suffer in making the art. But who wouldn’t want a world not dictated by sales? Nowadays, the first question that’s asked, either directly or indirectly, is: How did the show do? I think that’s heartbreaking. In a utopian art world, there’s less pressure to do something that already makes sense. — Hadi Falapishi, 39, painter and sculptor based in New York
These interviews have been edited and condensed
T Magazine
