Art 2009

All you need to be a successful prophet is to be a profound pessimist. Everything will get worse. We're in a sewage pipe baby. We're going to have to crawl along it until we die. 'Oh, but what about Obama?' I hear you squeal. A black at the White House! He's no more black than you or me. Everyone's coloured, or you wouldn't be able to see them. He's half-black half-white. Must be confusing for the c*nt. Doesn't know whether to rob you or shoot you. Don't be fooled. Men who have greatness within them don't go in for politics. He's just another white at the Black House

My fate lies not in the stars but in a star – myself .

I am sure my triumphs in the coming New Year will be as short-lived as my resolutions.

My New Year's resolution: to prove physically in front of an audience that male sheep cannot get pregnant.

Alex Chappel and David C West
Decima Gallery, Hackney Wick
www.decimagallery.com

Since beginning her cult London psychogeography 'zine Savage Messiah, artist and 'zine creator Laura Oldfield Ford has gone from strength to strength, recently securing a solo show at Marlborough Fine Art. She begins 2009 with a 'zine launch at Shoreditch's groovier and more influential Hales Gallery, which should solidify Laura's status as one of the hottest contemporaries around.

Hot on her tail is Byron Pritchard, who only became an artist fairly recently but has already got the attention of the most influential movers and shakers in the current art scene including the usually silent Gilbert & George, who opened his December show at Beyond Retro.

In terms of areas, Hackney Wick is already all over - Manor House is the only place left.

Nadine Feinson
Abstract Painter

An artist friend said to me the other day when we were discussing someone's work, that she liked it because it was 'personal'. 'Personal' is not a word I have heard used a lot recently as a marker of work being interesting, but I think it may be of greater importance in the future.

2009 could be the start of a time of great freedom for artists to make work unhampered by the  expectations of the art market: a much-needed breathing space and a shift in artistic practice towards greater experimentation and following of personal interests. A move in the focus of activity, away from the gallery and back to the workspace.    

Richard Wentworth
Artist and Director of the Ruskin Shool of Art
www.ruskin-sch.ox.ac.uk

5 years ago when I started to see if an artist could make an effective contribution to 21st century  art students (a sort of art director I thought) getting a good economist onto the staff of the Ruskin was a priority. I failed.

A couple of years ago, as compensation, I pinned up two photocopies. One was a glamorous Guardian centre-fold of the City's iconic towers and their market values (one had just gone for a billion); the other, an aerial shot of blitzed London taken from somewhere above the Angel or Kings Cross. On the pre-Barbican picture I wrote in large letters 'NO ART SCENE' and on the other I wrote 'THE ART SCENE'. John Heartfield would have done it with more graphic flair.

It costs little to make art (think of all manifestations here) and even less to share it with others (sometimes called culture). Young people are effortlessly resourceful, so I will be excited to see their piratical extemporisations and completely new ways of moving ideas round. Around the world that is, not around the circle line. There will be a strong moral dimension amongst it all, for sure.

Who does tomorrow belong to now? Po-faced critics are getting all excited by what they see as the chance to 'engage with a new seriousness' and a possible return to a high minded conceptualism. But trying to second guess artists is like trying to gather up a box of mischievous kittens – they will just run around the place willy-nilly. Artists on the front line have never had any credit to crunch anyway so they will still be counter-intuitively weaving their dreams and schemes, refusing to be pinned down to any movement.

The city crash should hopefully see an end to the manufactured 'street' art phenomenon, as it was the city boys and advertising executives who mostly bought into this myth, flashing their wads, playing at being subversive, perceiving the whole graffiti thing as being edgy and contemporary, when really it's just so tired.

There's going to be some darkling element however; no-one can listen to the news without those words of doom and gloom having some effect. There will be a return to the visceral, to bodily concerns. There will be political disruptions but they will be filled with desire, with a new romanticism. There will be more emotion about everything. Magazines will be important again – like Garageland they will be written, produced and published for passion rather than profit.

Artists to watch out for: Majed Aslam and Lea Provenzano, and also Laura Oldfield Ford, Kim Pace, Rose Eken, Gavin Toye, Gary O'Connor, Lara Vianni and Michael Ajerman

Zavier Ellis
The Future Can Wait; Charlie Smith London
www.thefuturecanwait.com; www.charliesmithlondon.com

With the economic climate as it is, I think this will be a great opportunity for the industry to take stock of itself. Artists will spend some profound time in the studio with long periods of introspection, and will look to make spectacular works as a result. A number of galleries will disappear and only the strong (or wealthy) will survive; not necessarily a bad thing.

Curators will want to present essential, engaging shows and will have to find creative solutions to counter a lack of funding. Exhibitions will continue to investigate the big, human themes and figuration will uphold its position of strength, eventually leading towards a move back to abstraction.

Artists to look out for in 2009: Tessa Farmer, Sam Jackson, Monica Ursine Jäger, James Jessop, Gavin Nolan, Gavin Tremlett.

Etan Ilfeld
Founder, Tenderpixel Gallery
www.tenderpixel.com

Following the most recent abysmal contemporary art sales at Frieze and the major auction houses (Sotheby's stock has already plummeted over 80%), it's official: the contemporary art bubble has burst! And yet the pricing downturn of established artists such as the YBAs may bode well for the emerging artists of 2009. Instead of buying recognized art-brands by celebrity artists, collectors will be prudent in investing in emerging talent whose art is more reasonably priced, which in turn, will help foster innovation and fresh contributions to the contemporary art world.

On another note, the cult of the celebrity artist - and celebrities in general - will retain a significant economic and cultural influence in London in 2009. However, rather than selling celebrity-created-products (art pieces, books, etc...), as our short attention spans continue to opt for context over content, celebrities will become more and more intertwined with the advertising sphere as people obsess over which celeb dined at Nobu last night. This will result in an increase of geographically-based celebrity citizen journalism manifest in sites such as www.stalkaceleb.com.

Mark McGowan
Performance Artist
www.markmcgowan.org

In 2009, look out for the Guy Hilton Gallery, situated in Fournier Street, in East London. In a basement filled to overflowing with eccentric art and flipped-out debauched artists, this is truly the most avant-garde and underground art empire in the world. The gallerist Guy Hilton, a skinny, bearded, drug-taking womanising art anti-hero is quite possibly the leader of the biggest movement at the moment, yet he retains his anonymity by shunning any commercial activity.

His artists include, the greatest artist in the world, Simon Ould, also, Bob and Roberta Smith, Franko B, Micalef the genius poet, David C West and Gideon Cube Sherman. He has also had shows which included the likes of JJ Charlesworth, Sacha Craddock, Andy Hunt and Will Self. Look out for Guy Hilton in 2009, that's if you find him.

Will Conibear
Co-founder, murmurART
www.murmurart.com

Since being awarded 1st prize from Edinburgh College of Art 2008 for his piece 'Love thy Neighbour' Kevin Harman has continued on his path as one of the most exciting young contemporary artists in the UK today and 2009 promises to be a great year for him. He'll be exhibiting in a show at the Generator gallery in Dundee in June, will be part of the Royal Scottish Academy's New Contemporaries exhibition in February and has a big solo show in London in the pipeline.

Kevin's sculpture, built from found objects, deals heavily with the conceptual, temporal, and performance. You can see more of his work at www.murmurart.com, where selected pieces are also for sale.

Beth Greenacre
Co-founder, Rokeby, Bloomsbury
www.rokebygallery.com

I am predicting a return to more collaborative approaches in the art world and short term, one off pop up art events for 2009! The second exhibition of 2009 at ROKEBY invites a selection of artists working independently or in collaboration, whose work deals with differing realities of temporal and spatial perception. The exhibition presents two brand new, ambitious installations for the first time. Stage Fright is a collaboration made up of the video installation artist Laura Buckley, artist, Haroon Mirza and artist/musician David MacLean.  The installation will be presented alongside a brand new video installation by Doug Fishbone.

Katie Guggenheim
Artist and curator

I predict that Le Corbusier at The Barbican and Gustav Metzger at the Serpentine will be amongst the most interesting exhibitions in London in 2009, and I am also looking forward to the re-opening of the Whitechapel and re-invention of the Showroom. Outside of London I am particularly excited about Philippe Parreno's forthcoming concurrent retrospective exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Zürich, Centre Pompidou, Irish Museum of Modern Art and CCS Bard, New York.

Michael Lewin
Culture Editor, Notion

I'm quite excited about seeing the progress of guerrilla gallery Thick & Thin, who give themselves the tagline of 'the correct and pleasing relation of things', a set of words which correctly and pleasingly relate in and of themselves. A collective of arts and media types, they host shows every three months or so and sell their artists' work through their website the rest of the time. Billed as 'an attempt to marry art and commerce', they are happily straightforward and refreshingly unpretentious.

The art market will continue healthily downwards into a major crisis with top-end prices decimated for fashionable works of no proven durability, and lots of people who hoped for a quick profit will make a quick loss.  There will be depreciation in preserved sharks.  Fraser Kee Scott, maverick and dynamic owner of the A Gallery in Wimbledon, will do well with artists such as sculptor Thomas Ostenberg and Paul Normansell (artwork for The Killers 'Day and Age' album). 

Stuckist artist Mark D, formerly a punk musician, who started painting in 2005, after being told 'Go fuck yourself' by Stella Vine, will not do as he's told and instead will continue to produce brilliant punk paintings, including satires of Vine's work.  Paul Harvey, another staunch Stuckist, will be seen on city hoardings as he walks in Alphons Mucha's footsteps with his work being used to promote Job cigarette papers.

There will be a Stuckist Turner Prize demo: every year I think there won't, and every year (apart from 2007 in Liverpool) there is, so I ought to accept the fact. Sir Nicholas Serota will attract more brickbats and emerge unscathed as the Teflon-coated Superman we all admire. 

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