The Gentrification of Art, 2025
Text-Based Digital Poster, Conceptual Rendering
Art started in story. It was born in caves, on walls, in poems, and in the streets. Art was a tool for survival and a weapon for change.
Art was about freedom. It gave people the power to fight colonial rulers, dictators, and systems that wanted to silence them. Art spoke when people could not speak.
Art was about pain. It showed wounds, heartbreak, and loss. It captured hunger, exile, and struggle in ways that numbers and headlines could never show.
Art was about truth. It questioned leaders, traditions, and the rules that keep people small and quiet. Art asked us to see the world as it really is, not as we wish it to be.
Art was about protest. It marched in the streets, sang in secret rooms, and hid in banned books. It gave people courage to keep going when hope felt impossible.
But today, art has been tamed. It has been turned into a logo on a tote bag or a scribble on a sneaker. Big brands and rich celebrities use art to look cool, to sell more, to stay relevant. Art has become a decoration for the powerful instead of a weapon for the people.
I call this the gentrification of art. It is the moment when art stops making us question and starts making us spend.
Real artists are not thinking about how to sell the next tote. Real artists are thinking about how to highlight the struggles of today. How to question authority. How to question power. How to solve problems. How to provoke. How to wake us up.
This work is not a protest. This work is a reminder of what art is about.
Art was never meant to fit in your shopping bag. It was meant to set your mind on fire.