The vocabulary of the contemporary art world is increasingly saturated with terms like "radical politics," "marginalized communities," "feminist art," and institutional critique. Yet, visitors browsing gallery spaces or major museum exhibitions will frequently encounter a stark contradiction: the institutions that proudly display these buzzwords often operate in direct opposition to the very values and groups they claim to champion.
This systemic hypocrisy lies at the heart of the neoliberal capture of modern cultural institutions. Scholars Amin Husain and Nitasha Dhillon, prominent organizers of the historic Strike MoMA protests in 2021, have long analyzed this troubling pattern. In a new review, Husain and Dhillon turn their critical lens toward The Battleground of Art, a provocative new book by Italian curator and activist Marco Baravalle. According to the reviewers, Baravalle’s work serves as an essential toolkit for cultural workers, activists, and thinkers striving to construct a better, freer art world that is liberated from corporate boardrooms and billionaire philanthropy.
As cultural institutions grapple with their internal contradictions, the broader artistic ecosystem in the United States finds itself at a pivotal crossroads. Following the recent midterm elections, longtime nonprofit arts leader Jasmine Wahi has stepped forward to remind the public that the fight for cultural sustainability and systemic reform is only just beginning.
After the Midterms, the Real Work for Arts and Culture Begins
In the immediate aftermath of the election cycle, many individuals who create, organize, fund, and sustain the cultural fabric of society have experienced a cautious sense of relief. However, that fleeting optimism is frequently overshadowed by the familiar, grinding anxiety of economic precarity that defines daily life for the vast majority of artists and cultural workers.
While newly elected Democratic congressional leaders face an undeniable mandate to push back against regressive federal policies, Wahi argues that opposition alone cannot represent the full extent of their political ambition. Holding elected officials accountable must extend far beyond merely redressing the damage inflicted by past administrations. It requires a fundamental rethinking of how the government supports artists, cultural workers, and independent institutions. Rebuilding the same fragile, inadequate baseline that existed prior to recent political upheavals is simply not enough to ensure a thriving cultural sector.
This call for structural economic justice runs parallel to ongoing global struggles for free expression and institutional integrity. Across the international landscape, cultural producers and independent journalists continue to face severe state suppression, highlighting the precarious nature of public discourse and creative freedom.
Human Rights Organizations Denounce Egypt’s Arrest of Mada Masr Editor Lina Attalah
International human rights organizations and freedom of expression advocates have raised widespread alarm following the recent arrest of Lina Attalah, the editor-in-chief of Mada Masr, one of Egypt’s last remaining independent news and investigative publications. The detention of Attalah has drawn intense public backlash and renewed scrutiny regarding the ongoing suppression of independent journalism and cultural commentary in the region.
The arrest underscores the fragile state of independent media in environments where critical reporting and cultural analysis are increasingly met with state retaliation. Observers note that the crackdown on journalistic voices directly impacts the broader cultural sphere, where investigative reporting and artistic critique share a symbiotic relationship in challenging authoritarian overreach.
How to Free the Art World from Its Neoliberal Capture
The structural pressures facing independent journalism find a parallel reflection within the institutional art world, a theme thoroughly explored in Marco Baravalle’s The Battleground of Art. Reviewed by Amin Husain and Nitasha Dhillon, the book offers a rigorous analysis of how major museums and cultural foundations have been co-opted by corporate interests, boardrooms dominated by venture capitalists, and questionable philanthropic endowments.
Baravalle traces how the language of social justice has been instrumentalized by institutions to project an image of progressive inclusivity while maintaining extractive economic models behind closed doors. For artists and organizers like Husain and Dhillon—who famously challenged the Museum of Modern Art’s board composition and ties to problematic donors during the 2021 Strike MoMA campaign—Baravalle’s text provides both theoretical grounding and strategic insights. It presents a roadmap for dismantling the corporate capture of cultural spaces, arguing that true autonomy requires severing the ties between artistic production and predatory capital.
This resistance to predatory corporate structures extends beyond physical museums and galleries, manifesting sharply in the realm of contemporary painting and digital culture.
Hiroshi Sato’s Art Against "Enshittification"
In the realm of contemporary visual art, San Francisco-based painter Hiroshi Sato is carving out a quiet yet fierce resistance against the encroachment of Silicon Valley ethos and the phenomenon commonly described as "enshittification"—the gradual degradation of digital platforms and public life under the weight of unbridled corporate monopolies.
Operating from the heartland of the tech industry, Sato’s quietly subversive paintings offer a contemplative counterweight to a culture dominated by hyper-accelerated digital consumption, algorithmic optimization, and corporate homogenization. Through meticulous observation and a deliberate rejection of tech-industry aesthetic norms, Sato’s work invites viewers to pause, reflect, and reclaim a sense of human agency in an increasingly commodified visual landscape.
Expanding Access and Opportunities in the Cultural Sector
Amid these systemic challenges, various initiatives continue to emerge to support independent creators and preserve diverse cultural narratives. Among recent developments, cultural organizations are working to expand public access to vital artistic histories and cinematic traditions. A notable example includes a limited two-week streaming presentation featuring a curated selection of 14 Indigenous short films. This program highlights powerful stories of resilience, cultural survival, and hope, offering audiences an opportunity to engage directly with Indigenous cinema and storytelling.
Simultaneously, institutional support programs continue to open application cycles aimed at fostering sustainable artistic practices. The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, for instance, has opened applications for its prestigious Core Residency Program, inviting a new international cohort of artists and writers to develop their practices within a supportive intellectual community ahead of its upcoming term.
These programs, alongside independent critique networks—such as the Yellow Chair Symposium, NYC Crit Club, and The Alternative School, which many artists cite as vital, unsparing alternatives to traditional MFA programs—demonstrate that cultural workers continue to forge resilient, decentralized pathways for mutual aid, professional growth, and critical discourse outside of traditional institutional frameworks.
The Spectator and the Public Sphere
As conversations surrounding the role of the public in the arts continue to evolve, historians and critics are increasingly turning their attention away from the traditional focus on elite artists, curators, and historians, shifting instead toward the active participation of spectators.
In The Art Public: A Short History, scholar Oskar Bätschmann examines the often-overlooked half of the cultural equation: the audience. As critic David Carrier notes in a retrospective look at Bätschmann’s thesis, understanding the history of the art public is essential for recognizing how spectators engage with, interpret, and ultimately give meaning to cultural production.
Whether through grassroots organizing against museum board members, independent investigative journalism braving state suppression, or painters subverting the aesthetic demands of Silicon Valley, the ongoing struggles across the cultural landscape point toward a singular reality: the future of art and culture depends entirely on the collective refusal to accept inadequate baselines, corporate co-optation, and institutional hypocrisy.
