Wikipedia:WikiProject Contemporary Art

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Welcome to WikiProject Contemporary Arts, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of contemporary art, artists, movements, institutions, and criticism from roughly 1970 to the present.

If you would like to help, please join the project by adding your name to the participants list and reviewing the scope and goals below.

Scope

This WikiProject covers topics in contemporary visual art, broadly defined. Articles within our scope include:

Artists working from approximately 1970 to the present, across all media
Movements and tendencies such as Relational aesthetics, Post-internet art, and New media art
Institutions including museums, kunsthallen, biennials, art fairs, and artist-run spaces
Exhibitions of significant critical or historical note
Critics, curators, and theorists shaping contemporary discourse
Collectives and collaboratives working in post-studio practices
Galleries and dealers meeting notability thresholds
Publications and journals covering contemporary art criticism

Scope boundaries

Topics primarily covered by sibling projects should be tagged accordingly:

Pre-1970 modern art: WikiProject Visual arts
Architecture: WikiProject Architecture
Photography as documentation rather than art practice: WikiProject Photography
Film and video outside gallery contexts: WikiProject Film

Articles may fall within multiple projects; dual tagging is encouraged where appropriate.

Goals

Improve quality and verifiability of articles on contemporary artists, particularly those from underrepresented regions and demographics
Establish clear notability standards consistent with WP:ARTIST and WP:ORG
Build a sourcing guide centered on peer-reviewed and editorially independent publications
Address systemic bias in coverage of Global South, Indigenous, and non-Western contemporary art practices
Support new editors navigating WP:COI and WP:PAID requirements

Participants

To join, add your username below with # ~~~~, and optionally add the userbox to your user page with {{User WikiProject Contemporary Arts}}.

Article assessment

All articles within our scope should be tagged with the project banner on the talk page:

{{WikiProject Contemporary Art|class=|importance=}}

Importance scale

Importance	Criteria	Examples
Top	Foundational figures, movements, or institutions	Documenta, Venice Biennale, Conceptual art
High	Major internationally recognized subjects	Marina Abramović, Tate Modern, Whitney Biennial
Mid	Well-established subjects with regional or specialized significance
Low	Subjects meeting notability but narrower in reach

Sourcing guide

Contemporary art is a field where promotional writing is common. Editors should prioritize independent, editorially reviewed sources over gallery press releases, artist statements, and self-published material.

Recommended sources

Peer-reviewed and academic

Editorially independent journalism and criticism

Artforum
Frieze
Art in America
ARTnews
The Art Newspaper
e-flux (editorial content, not press releases)
Hyperallergic
Art Monthly

Major newspaper arts desks

The New York Times, The Guardian, Financial Times, Le Monde

Sources requiring caution

Gallery websites and press materials (primary, promotional)
Artist websites and self-published statements (primary)
Auction house biographies (promotional, aimed at sales)
Exhibition catalogs written by curators involved in the exhibition (primary, though useful for factual claims)
Press release aggregators

Notability benchmarks for artists

Drawing from WP:ARTIST, strong indicators include:

Inclusion in multiple museum permanent collections (verified via institutional databases, not artist CVs)
Solo exhibitions at major institutions with independent critical coverage
Dedicated monograph from a peer-reviewed or university press
Sustained independent critical analysis across multiple publications over time
Inclusion in survey exhibitions of historical significance

Templates

Banner template

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Userbox

{{User WikiProject Contemporary Arts}}