• Mosaic art is transitioning from craft to recognized art form by embracing new techniques and engaging actively with the art market to gain legitimacy and museum visibility, especially for emerging artists outside traditional gallery representation.
• Art criticism, while analytic and rational, often conflicts with the imaginative and symbolic nature of art; mosaic artists should focus on creativity and vision rather than allowing criticism to dominate their artistic process.
• Successful contemporary artists like Tony Cragg, El Anatsui, and Chuck Close demonstrate that prioritizing concept over medium and fusing multiple materials can elevate mosaic art’s relevance and innovation.
• Developing a solid, diverse body of work that includes mosaics alongside other media enhances artistic exploration and helps mosaic artists communicate their ideas more effectively within the competitive art market.
• Preparing for a new art paradigm involves critical thinking, measurable progress, and actionable metrics to demonstrate cause and effect, enabling mosaic artists and the broader art community to adapt and thrive by 2030 or sooner.

Cover Photo : Daniel Canogar

As we approach the end of the decade, we can perceive that mosaic art has developed techniques and processes which elevate it form craft to art. However, this affirmation needs to be contextualized.

There appears to be a consensus that Art (in general) taken as a whole, is in trouble. Despite booming museum attendance, and the undeniable amount of new creative output and visions, there is still a deep-seated feeling that we have fallen from style. Nowadays, the tension between idealism and materialism is very elevated, and public estimation is discerned to be moving from dissatisfaction with contemporary art to animosity. Although in the intellectual social order, the quarrel of art is losing appeal, but art as “pluralism”, will never become superseded.

In my opinion a new paradigm will emerge before the end of the 21st century. This vision has been predicted since about the turn of the millennium and could be unveiled by 2030 or sooner.

Where does the paradigm begin, though? This article offers a brief glimpse into the future of mosaic art and a sneak peek at the expected paradigm.

The first step is figuring out the dilemma that needs to be solved and then developing a critical thinking and intuition to start witnessing a shift in paradigm. Once we have all of our vulnerabilities tied to fixes in the art scene, a startup can work on reconstructing a compelling vision. This will involve measurement and learning and must include actionable metrics that can demonstrate cause and effect question.

Courtesy Of Bruce Munro

• Art Critics

Although, art critics have tried to remake Art in its own image, however Art is not criticism. It is the exact opposite of criticism. Art springs from the imagination, within precognitive origins. The mechanism of art is inexpressible, assembling symbol and myth. In contrast, art criticism is analytic, within rational schemes. It meets art like matter meets anti-matter. When criticism becomes more dominant than art, the methods begin to systematically devastate the fruition of art and creativity. Nevertheless, creativity can never be completely killed off, and talent is ever-renewed, despite all effort to argue it away.

Courtesy Of Soo Sunny Park

• Mosaic Artists Engaging With The Art Market

Avant garde mosaic artists have almost lost the desire to work; if critics lose the thrust to talk then Art is left hanging, just as a product. First its status slips, then its value, then its price. The rich abandon it as a bad investment and the masses think it’s deceitful. Nonetheless, in order to circumvent this occurring disaster, one must take up preparedness measures, such as believing in the new paradigm. Mosaic artists engaging with the art market? This idea brings legitimacy and visibility, helping to facilitate the acquisition of works by museums and collections, especially by young artists not represented by art galleries and whose works do not otherwise sell easily.

If we are to see mosaic art in museums, individual mosaic artists must engage with the art market and emphasize their ideas and their exploration of those ideas, not the medium they work in. Mosaic artists should create a good, solid body of work that demonstrates their artistic process, one that might even include work in other mediums:

Courtesy of Michael Mapes

• Mosaic In Other Media Is Required To Explore New Ideas And Visions

The impetus of art is a private passion, not a public mission. Art can’t take direction, either from the left or the right. It is a gift of the Id. It’s neither a prescription nor a proscription of the self. Some artists know this, either consciously or unconsciously, and it is these artists who, despite all the pressures of the markets and media, will become the artists of the future.

Courtesy of Yayoi Kusama

“Many highly collected artists like Tony Cragg, El Anatsui and Chuck Close are creating work by fusing multiple mediums to surfaces or creating their own visual tesserae using traditional mediums. While one may question whether these works are mosaics or not, mosaic artists should learn from the success of these artists that the concept must take priority over the medium”. Gary Drostle

What else would you have liked to have seen in this article?

In your opinion, What’s it going to take to advance the art form/genre/medium?

Have any other thoughts or questions about the future of this medium? Let us know in the comments below.

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