Michael Day

Emerging Artist T-Shirt

A photo of a red T-shirt with the words 'Emerging Artist' in a horror-film typeface printed on it in lurid green ink

Searching for a standout look for the 2023 Degree Show season?

Announce yourself as emerging and positively inclined to schmoozing with this fantastic ‘Emerging Artist’ T-shirt. Why pretend you’ve made it when you could embrace and celebrate being the vulnerable prey of the visual arts food chain? Both as a label and a lifestyle, ’emerging artist’ suits any age group and all levels of talent and ability. Join the gang, get your hustle on, and let’s be visible together!

Available via my Etsy Store – link in bio!
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The front of a T-shirt could be considered as a site for the construction and display of identity for the wearer, as well as being a fairly democratic and accessible public space to locate and share cultural messages. The horror-film typeface might suggest an art world being overwhelmed by new talent much like a zombie invasion, with curators and selectors being torn limb from limb as they desperately try to gatekeep.

I’m NOT proposing that emerging artists are zombie-like, or lacking in agency. It’s more that at a structural level, the art world behaves as though emerging artists are abject: why else would early-career artists be asked to work for free or ‘for exposure’, or without contracts that provide job security, or in many cases, be charged a fee to exhibit their work? Why else would they be required to relentlessly pursue visibility, in a climate of enforced competitiveness, on playing field skewed by unevenly distributed cultural capital and hidden networks of privilege?

The horror is in the experience of being an emerging artist as currently constituted by an inequitable and unmeritocratic art world. To continue the zombie metaphor, perhaps the new wave of emerging artists will overrun, cannibalise, and replace some of the existing unbalanced and unsustainable systems of art world power.

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This was a throwaway idea that came up as part of my participation in ArtQuest’s #30days30works project in April 2023. I usually throw away throwaway ideas, but decided to keep this one.