Fab abs, trauma videos and a big pile of sweets: the art and artists of TikTok
From the user proudly exhibiting his dad's nudes to the woman making sculpting dangerous, art on TikTok is direct, intimate and confessional, with little time for the abstract or avant garde
Art on TikTok is more Tony Hart than Marcel Duchamp. It's not hard to imagine the late BBC children's artist enjoying Here's how I paint with a mop" and Where I find monsters for my goth art". You won't find the next Steve McQueen or Tacita Dean here, uploading serious video art - or at least I haven't - but you will encounter many enthusiasts and indefatigable outsiders.
Avant garde art is in short supply on TikTok, though. But this simply reflects what's happening in art galleries in the wake of BLM, as people use traditional methods to assert a new identity politics. Tabitha Whitley is a Brooklyn artist who creates prints and paintings of idealised, powerful Black faces, which she shares in TikTok vignettes.
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