The Future of Art Was Never About Money
The Future of Art Was Never About Money
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by Alejandro Castañón
How has capitalism changed the way artists create?
How has capitalism changed the way artists create?
There’s something happening right now in the art world that feels bigger than trends, bigger than galleries, and honestly bigger than the market itself.
I’m not the biggest fan of where art has ended up over the last several decades. Too much of the conversation has been centered around money, what sells, what performs, what gets collected, what reaches auction houses, what becomes “valuable” in the eyes of institutions. Art became tied to productivity and economics in the same way everything else under capitalism has. Even artists themselves were pushed into becoming brands, content machines, and businesses before they were ever allowed to simply create. For anyone that spends time in reddit communities I have a doozy for you. Recently someone posted something that made me aware that sentiment is growing. Additional-Flight-88 writes, "Painting itself isn’t the problem; it’s everything that surrounds being a working artist. The pressure, the performance, the endless self-promotion, the gamble of investing time and money with no predictable outcome. I’ve noticed that every time I try to move forward professionally, it feels like I’m forcing myself back into an identity that carries a lot of old weight and trauma for me. "
But I’m hopeful, because I think we’re beginning to witness a shift.
Artists are often the first people to feel cultural changes before the rest of society catches up. You can see it in the work being made right now. There’s a growing desire for art that exists beyond commerce. Art that doesn’t need to sell something to justify its existence.
When artwork can simply exist, not as a commodity, but as an experience, the value changes completely.
The value is no longer about auction prices at Sotheby’s or what a collector can flip it for profit later. The value becomes its impact on people. Its ability to create dialogue. Its ability to push innovation, fairness, inclusivity, justice, and community forward.
That’s a very different role for art than the one we inherited.
Shelby hard at work.
A lot of today’s artist business models were born centuries ago during the rise of capitalism: commissions, patronage systems, selling originals, murals. Even many of the great masters were trapped inside systems of labor and production. Michelangelo famously complained about painting the Sistine Chapel because of how grueling the process was. We romanticize the output, but many artists throughout history were suffering through the systems that funded them.
And I think we’re living at the very end of that model.
What excites me now is this new idea that art is not only meant to be seen, it’s meant to be experienced.
That experience has to become more accessible. For too long, meaningful access to art has been reserved for people with money, education, connections, or proximity to major cultural centers. But the internet shattered that paradigm.
Information and more specifically, learning, has been democratized.
The creative class is taking the power back
The creative class is taking the power back
Artists are learning from YouTube instead of expensive universities. Communities are forming online outside of traditional gatekeepers. People are teaching themselves to paint, animate, sculpt, design, edit video, make music, and build worlds entirely from their bedrooms.
That changes where the power lives.
The power is moving back toward the creative class.
Mural work 2019
Everything around us is shaped by artists and creators, the shows we watch, the music we listen to, the games we play, the stories we tell ourselves, the aesthetics that influence culture itself. Art has always shaped society, but now people are beginning to recognize that power more openly.
And that recognition matters because art is not fundamentally about money.
It’s about social change.
It’s about reflection.
It’s about solidarity.
It’s about imagining better futures and helping people emotionally survive the present.
That’s why I believe this is one of the most exciting times in history to become an artist.
It’s about imagining better futures and helping people emotionally survive the present.
TedX Talk Mollie Balshaw 2025
Not because it’s easy.
Not because it’s profitable.
But because creativity itself is becoming part of a larger movement toward a more human-centered society, one where people deserve the ability to exist, create, and participate fully in culture regardless of class. I watched a TedX talk recently by Mollie Balshaw (screenshot above) and I like how she put it, "The system won't change unless we can imagine something different first."
When I say “artist,” I mean that in the broadest possible sense.
An artist is anyone who creates.
That could mean painting. It could mean gardening. It could mean doodling in a notebook during lunch breaks. It could mean woodworking in a garage, designing clothes, making videos, cooking, dancing, storytelling, or building community.
Creation exists everywhere.
And I think more people should participate in it, not because they need to monetize it, but because creating reconnects us to what it means to be human.
Even the smallest act of creation changes something inside you.
Pick up a pencil and doodle a few times a day. You’ll feel it.
That movement toward creativity, community, and shared humanity is already happening.
And honestly?
That’s something worth being excited about.
Even the smallest act of creation changes something inside you.
Even the smallest act of creation changes something inside you.
References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQN_0dXnolg&feature=youtu.be - TedX Talk Mollie Balshaw 2025
https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtistLounge/comments/1p4xmbm/quietly_quitting_my_art_career/?share_id=MaMlvk5HC-6pYszfbSP2U&utm_content=2&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_source=share&utm_term=1 - "Quitely quitting my art career" 2025
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