Welcome to The Gen Z Art Critic!
I’m Jennifer (Gen Z, German), lovely to have you here!
Two things define me: Art and memes. I’m doing my Masters Degree in Art History at the University of Cologne. But in a parallel world in some different dimension, I’m a comedian. So why not do both and make art fun?
I spend the winters being a student in Cologne. But as soon as the sun gets out, I am an art guide taking off to Italy. Since 2021, I’ve been working in Venice doing the coolest job in the world: Talking about art all day long. So I get to see a whole lot of exhibitions.
My approach to contemporary art
So I write about them right here. You might have noticed a couple of things, i.e. that I rarely use birth dates when introducing artists. This has two reasons. First, I’m bad at math and unless you don’t tell me an exact age, I won’t be able to calculate how old they are. 💀 Second, I am interested in how your generation shapes you as a person. Every generation has its unique struggles, movements, beliefs, and values that form the experiences of individual people. So I think you can draw cool comparisons by looking at artists as part of different generations. I know that the concept of Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z is limited and doesn’t necessarily apply well all around the world (In Japan, for example, generations are counted and defined differently).
The same goes for nationalities. I chose to mention artists’ nationalities even though they might work and live in places that are disconnected from their origins. And finally, I am referring to artists by their first name. I feel like that makes them more human. Big names make artists these concepts, these unreachable superheroes of art history. I don’t wanna talk genius and brilliant. I wanna talk art and people.
So don’t treat this as a fixed way of dealing with contemporary art. I might change my mind in the course of this journey. But for now, that’s how we’re rolling.
Why subscribe?
Don’t mind me, I’m just a silly little girl in a silly goofy mood with a smol laptop and a whole bunch of misplaced confidence writing about art exhibits.
The thing is: Exhibitions can be annoying. The art becomes just a pretext for pretentious people to show up. And sometimes, the art isn’t even giving. And to make things worse, the texts in these shows are most often not helpful. You can play Art Talk BS Bingo reading these.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. I believe that art is for everyone. I also believe that there is good art and bad art. And I am an advocate of being real. So that’s what you can expect from me: Real, unfiltered opinions on art shows. No BS. As a Gen Z, I’m just wired to not take anything too seriously, so let’s have fun trash-talking art exhibitions (not derogatory).
So if you want to keep reading my cheeky little reviews, subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and website. Never miss an update.
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Around here, we have fun, we talk about art, and we do it the Gen Z way. No filter.
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I’m happy you’re here, enjoy!
See you soon!!!
Jennifer
The Gen Z Art Critic