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| Next Wave (arts) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Next Wave (arts) |
| Background | group_or_band |
| Origin | International |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Genre | interdisciplinary, avant-garde, experimental |
Next Wave (arts)
Next Wave refers to overlapping international currents in interdisciplinary performance, visual arts, and experimental media that emerged in the late 20th century and continue into the 21st century. It intersects with avant-garde theatre, contemporary dance, multimedia installation, and hybrid curatorial practices associated with institutions, festivals, and artist-run collectives across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australasia.
The term developed amid networks around Judson Memorial Church, Whitney Museum of American Art, Tate Modern, Museum of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou and Documenta during the 1960s–1980s, linking artists who worked across Merce Cunningham-linked choreography, Robert Rauschenberg-style assemblage, John Cage-inspired indeterminacy, Nam June Paik-driven video art, and Allan Kaprow-derived happenings. Early catalysts included collaborations involving Graham Vick, Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson, Trisha Brown, Suzanne Lacy, Vito Acconci, Yvonne Rainer, Fluxus, Factory (Andy Warhol), Performance Art scenes associated with New York University, California Institute of the Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, Royal College of Art, and artist residencies at Banff Centre, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and ICA London.
Next Wave drew from Minimalism figures like Donald Judd and Carl Andre, the conceptual practices of Sol LeWitt, and the site-specificity of Gordon Matta-Clark and Christo and Jeanne-Claude. It integrated electronic music and sound worlds of Brian Eno, Kraftwerk, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass, while adopting dissemination strategies from Independent Group (art) precursors and curatorial models developed at Serpentine Galleries, Walker Art Center, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Political and social practices referenced the community art frameworks of Theaster Gates, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Hans Haacke, Harun Farocki, Doris Salcedo, and The Guerrilla Girls, together with film and media interventions from Chris Marker, Barbara Hammer, Harold Pinter-adjacent theatre, and Brechtian modes popularized via institutions like Royal Shakespeare Company and Staatstheater Stuttgart.
Artists associated with Next Wave practices include Marina Abramović, Matthew Barney, Cindy Sherman, Mike Kelley, Tino Sehgal, Sarah Kane, Robert Wilson, Anish Kapoor, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Pina Bausch, Christian Marclay, Shirin Neshat, Kara Walker, William Kentridge, Yayoi Kusama, Ai Weiwei, Julie Taymor, William Forsythe, Isaac Julien, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Terry Riley, Janet Cardiff, Gillian Wearing, Paul McCarthy, Do Ho Suh, Hito Steyerl, Rosa Barba, Danh Võ, Olafur Eliasson, Tracey Emin, Takashi Murakami, Grayson Perry, Angela Carter, Chantal Akerman, Ralph Lemon, Katherine Dunham, Eiko & Koma, Meredith Monk, Sophie Calle, Rachel Whiteread, Stanley Kubrick-adjacent filmic aesthetics visible in hybrid stage works. Signature works include performances like Barney’s androgynous installations, Abramović’s endurance pieces, Tino Sehgal’s constructed situations, and Julie Taymor’s stage-epics; film-installations by Isaac Julien and Isaac Julien’s "Western Union" series; sound-assemblages by Christian Marclay; and immersive environments by Olafur Eliasson and James Turrell that exemplify Next Wave spatial thinking.
Next Wave practices were showcased at platforms such as Venice Biennale, Whitney Biennial, Performa Biennial, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Spoleto Festival, Sydney Festival, Next Wave Festival (Brooklyn Academy of Music), Brooklyn Academy of Music, MoMA PS1, Tate Modern, Hayward Gallery, Gwangju Biennale, Shanghai Biennale, Frieze Art Fair, Sundance Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, Festival d’Avignon, Jacob’s Pillow, BAMcinématek, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Royal Opera House, Stedelijk Museum, Museo Reina Sofía, Palais de Tokyo, Hammer Museum, Kunsthalle Basel, Documenta Kassel, Vilnius Contemporary, ICA Boston, Walker Art Center, Leipzig Gewandhaus and artist-run hubs like The Kitchen (NYC), Rauschenberg Residency, Artists Space (NYC), and Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume.
Critics from journals and outlets including Artforum, Frieze (magazine), The New York Times, The Guardian, ArtReview, Bomb Magazine, Parkett, October (journal), The Village Voice, Los Angeles Times, Die Zeit, Le Monde, El País, and Corriere della Sera debated Next Wave’s interdisciplinarity, citing intersections with neoliberal-era cultural policy around NEA (United States) funding controversies, debates involving Cultural Olympiad initiatives, and critiques from theorists influenced by Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, and Roland Barthes. Reception ranged from praise in curatorial circles at ICA London and MoMA to activist critiques by Guerrilla Girls and community arts advocates linked to Public Art Fund.
Next Wave legacies persist in contemporary practices by artists and collectives active at Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Whitney Museum, Tate Modern, Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Harvard Art Museums, MIT Media Lab, Goldsmiths, University of London, _CALArts_, and institutions funding interdisciplinary residencies such as MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Current trajectories include crossovers with digital culture from Rhizome, Ars Electronica, Mozilla Festival, and virtual platforms influenced by NFT art debates, algorithmic curation from Google Arts & Culture, and socially engaged projects linked to New Museum initiatives. The Next Wave continues to shape pedagogy at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins, and global biennials listed above, sustaining a lineage across performance, installation, and media arts.
Category:Contemporary art movements