Nevermind The Buzzwords

This quarter, Art Republik brings you the good, the bad and the downright scammy in the current art world orbit. From “Chicken Don” (not a bento), to calls for funding cuts, market rigging, to the magical world that is unlocked artist Instagrams — here are the buzzwords you need to know, to re-authenticate your credentials (and not choke on your reheated gentrified $15 food truck chow), when you get accosted by flunkies at the next evening mass gathering of stalls, arguably non-high energy music and Instagrammable decoratives.

- Tan Boon Hau

TRUTHINESS

Comedian Adam Conover made (controversial) waves early August, with the drop of his five-minute video ‘How the Fine Art Market is a Scam’, as part of his series ‘Adam Ruins Everything’, in which he dissected and eviscerated the cloak, dagger and the shadowy cabals artificially manipulating art for self-enrichment. Basically power players, money men determining what art is, and just who can be artists; the same persistent complaints have been echoing around the art world in recent years.

He attacks, he protects, but most importantly, people are divided about the accuracy of the allegations, with most agreeing that corruption and rigging takes place, but not to the degree of nefariousness. Watch the video on Youtube (with a quick search of name plus title), and see if you agree.

UNLOCKED