This is a video of the Art Upstart, who is an abstract painter whom I have followed since I came across his social media campaign in late 2009 (which attempted to see whether he could gain as much popularity, in Google search terms, as the artists featured on the BBC’s School of Saatchi when it was running on TV). His brand was ostentatiously anti art establishment then, and now it’s even more so.
Clearly a very savvy character, James ‘The Art Upstart’ Hogan, has centred his bid for popularity by associating himself with the bid to fight against the convention which creates public artists today - the art establishment itself, or the influential tastes of an incredibly small clique.
His campaign for exposure, which markets his work by skillfully blending its exhibition online with a discussion of what is art itself (and what should be deemed ‘artistic’), is clearly territory for the social media age; a strange mysterious land in which ‘community engagement’ is of course the plat du jour. Appropriately, his campaign exists to encourage that his worth is judged not only by his actual work, but by how the public have engaged with him - his front page proudly promotes his Twitter & Flickr communities, and he has openly campaigns to have his personal brand ranked on Google. To use the words of the man himself:
In successfully ‘empowering’ us, he most importantly empowers himself; appropriately he has now published a book with high plaudits from towering figures in the popular media such as Greg Dyke, Adam Boulton, and Andrew Neil, and has an upcoming exhibition in Cork Street, the bastion of London’s art scene. You might also have caught this article in the Evening Standard today.
For more on his work check out his fascinating blog, which clearly shows that his creative skills lie not only in art itself.
(Tumbled via YouTube - whoistheartupstart’s Channel)
