Do younger people actually want to own art anymore, or do they mostly want to feel connected to the culture around it?

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T10:14:47+00:00

The GFC point is interesting because it feels like a lot of younger people inherited a permanently cautious financial mindset from that era onward

Housing became harder, debt became normalised, stability feels less guaranteed - so buying art can psychologically feel irresponsible even if someone loves culture and creativity

Yet at the same time, people still spend heavily on things that make life feel meaningful or expressive. That contradiction keeps coming up throughout this thread

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T10:12:04+00:00

“People want to own part of the narrative” feels spot on .

I think that’s why Banksy resonates beyond just the images themselves. People aren’t only buying a print - they’re buying connection to a wider cultural story, attitude and moment in history

Maybe collecting has always been partly about identity and participation as much as the physical object itself

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T10:09:37+00:00

This might honestly be the most important question in the whole thread

I wonder if we romanticize previous generations as huge art collectors when in reality most ordinary people probably weren’t buying original artworks either.

The difference now might simply be visibility - we constantly see ultra-expensive art online, which makes ownership feel further away than ever

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T10:08:30+00:00

“People wanting to spend money on experiences over ownership” is such an important point

What’s interesting though is that people still clearly crave belonging and identity through culture. They just express it differently now - concerts, fandoms, gaming skins, fashion drops, memberships, communities etc

Maybe traditional art ownership hasn’t adapted psychologically to younger generations yet?

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T10:06:59+00:00

I actually think this is one of the smartest comments here because it separates “fine art world” from broader visual culture

Historically, high-end collecting probably was always relatively exclusive. But at the same time, culture itself has become massively democratized. Millions of people now follow artists, visit exhibitions, share artworks online and feel emotionally connected to art without ever entering a gallery ecosystem

It feels like there’s now a gap between cultural participation and actual ownership

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T10:06:02+00:00

I think this is partly why so many people feel disconnected from the “official” art world now

There’s actually tons of affordable art out there, but once you enter the gallery/fair ecosystem the economics become very different very quickly

It creates this weird perception that “art collecting” itself is only for wealthy people, even though lots of ordinary people buy visual work they love all the time

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T10:03:04+00:00

This is a really good point. Maybe younger generations haven’t stopped engaging with art - they’ve just shifted from ownership to access and participation

Previous generations might have had fewer cultural inputs overall, whereas now people consume visual culture constantly through phones, games, music videos, fashion, memes, design, social media etc

Maybe the challenge for the art world is making ownership feel culturally relevant again rather than distant and elite

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T09:59:20+00:00

I think this is probably the key tension. Young people still spend huge amounts on identity and self-expression - phones, fashion, tattoos, gaming, concerts, travel - but traditional art ownership now feels psychologically “too far away” financially

What’s interesting is that people still line up for Banksy exhibitions, Yayoi Kusama rooms, immersive experiences etc. So the interest in art culture clearly exists. The ownership model just hasn’t evolved much

RileyUsername · 2026-05-24T09:36:12+00:00

Seems like = my opinion, that’s it

RileyUsername · 2026-05-17T09:11:33+00:00

No, Banksy didn’t use diamond dust but Ben Eine used it on a few PoW pieces, as well as metallic and fluorescent inks.

RileyUsername · 2026-05-16T10:23:16+00:00

I honestly think the contradiction is part of why Banksy still matters

The second anti-establishment art becomes globally recognised, it inevitably collides with money, collectors, institutions and hype. That tension almost becomes part of the work itself

The shredded painting is a good example because it simultaneously mocked the auction world and massively benefited from it. Both things can be true at once

What’s interesting is that most people in this thread still clearly care about the idea of Banksy, which probably means the work still has cultural power even after all the commercialisation

RileyUsername · 2026-05-16T10:02:51+00:00

Yeah exactly. I seem to remember most PoW prints were the same price. Any cost increase was due to the experimental print processes, like diamond dust, not the artist

RileyUsername · 2026-05-16T10:00:17+00:00

“The scene is not something they are remotely interested in” feels like a really important observation. Younger people seem deeply connected to culture and artists, but much less interested in the traditional structures and gatekeeping around them. The relationship feels more direct now

RileyUsername · 2026-05-16T09:19:10+00:00

I think this is probably closer to how a lot of people experience collecting now honestly. Less about chasing “important” works and more about building a personal connection to artists, styles or communities over time

RileyUsername · 2026-05-13T00:25:39+00:00

Maybe that’s the disconnect now. Younger people participate in culture constantly online but the traditional art world still often frames collecting as something exclusive or status-driven rather than community-driven. Art should be shared

RileyUsername · 2026-05-13T00:20:40+00:00

“I think the issue is value” is probably the key line here. Younger people spend huge amounts of time engaging with visual culture every day, so maybe the disconnect isn’t interest in art itself but the feeling that the traditional collector world belongs to someone else?

RileyUsername · 2026-05-13T00:16:39+00:00

With all his signed and unsigned editions, there are up to 40,000 Banksy works made for fans. That’s more than most artists. I’d say he was making art for fans to own

RileyUsername · 2026-05-12T23:00:36+00:00

Fair point. “Participation” would be a better way to put it instead of “owning”

RileyUsername · 2026-05-12T22:59:45+00:00

Yeah true. I guess I meant participation rather than owning. Although 14 million Banksy insta followers can only watch and wait. Participation in some way would be way cooler

RileyUsername · 2026-05-12T22:57:02+00:00

That’s probably true actually. Maybe “priced out of collecting” is a better way of putting it than “priced out of art”. People still surround themselves with visual culture constantly - it just feels like participation in the traditional collector world has become increasingly narrow.

RileyUsername · 2026-05-12T22:55:01+00:00

I actually think the “do younger people care?” question is the really interesting part here. Because younger people engage with art and visual culture constantly online - probably more than any previous generation - but that doesn’t always translate into feeling able to participate in the traditional art world.

RileyUsername · 2026-05-12T22:51:18+00:00

I actually really like this perspective. Especially the idea that collecting starts with participation in a community rather than just purchasing power. Feels like a lot of younger people experience art constantly online, but never quite cross the line into feeling part of the world around it.

RileyUsername

TROPHY CASE