The Post-Aesthetic Apocalypse: How Young People Killed Art and Replaced It with Vaporwave Hedgehogs

The Gallery Has Left the Building

Once upon a time, art was about emotion, perspective, depth, and nude people frolicking near ponds for no apparent reason. Now? It’s a 12-frame animated GIF of a screaming frog wearing Yeezys—and it’s going for $88,000 on OpenSea.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the end of visual civilization as we know it: where Gen Z’s “curated taste” consists of AI hallucinations, ironic clipart, and an inexplicable affection for glitchcore raccoons.

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They Think JPEG Ownership Is a Spiritual Journey

Meet Trevor, 24, a self-identified “decentralized art monk” from Brooklyn who recently sold his grandmother’s urn to purchase a 300×300 JPEG of a pixelated man smoking a pipe made of binary code.
“I don’t own it physically,” Trevor explains, “but spiritually, I vibe with it.”
Critics call it absurd. But according to a fake Yale study, “97% of young art buyers believe JPEGs ‘touch their soul more deeply than oil-based works, mostly because they load faster.’”

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They Were Raised on iPads and Crayola Filter Packs

Art education used to involve sketchbooks, charcoal, and that one kid who always drew dragons during math class. Now?
An entire generation has grown up believing finger painting on an iPad is equivalent to mastering the Dutch Golden Age.
According to Missy, age 19:

“My first art memory was using the ‘rainbow glitter brush’ in MS Paint. That’s when I knew I was a visionary.”
And who could blame her? The Louvre doesn’t have a ‘shimmer opacity layer’ button.

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They Believe AI-Generated Art Feels “More Human”

Let’s be honest—nothing says authenticity like a neural network trained on spam emails and Pepe memes.
AI art is the perfect match for Gen Z: it’s fast, mostly nonsensical, and available in 14 psychedelic color schemes.
“When I look at AI art,” said one collector, “I feel like the machine really gets me, unlike my therapist.”

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They Confuse Glitchcore with Gothic Masterpieces

Glitchcore, a chaotic blend of vaporwave, error messages, and late-stage capitalism, has become the dominant style in Gen Z’s visual lexicon.
A popular new piece titled 404 Girlboss Not Found features a tearful anime character melting into a QR code.
Art historians describe it as “like watching the internet suffer a nervous breakdown in real time.”
Sotheby’s? They just sold it for $47,000 in Ethereum.

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They Think Banksy Invented Art with a Message

Yes, because before Banksy, nobody ever thought to say things with pictures.
Forget Goya, Daumier, or Käthe Kollwitz—this generation thinks political art began with a rat holding a Molotov cocktail.
Banksy has become to Gen Z what Shakespeare is to high school English: overquoted, misunderstood, and used mainly to impress dates on Bumble.

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They Can’t Name an Artist Unless They Have a TikTok Handle

Want to test a young collector? Ask them to name one dead artist.
If they can’t say “Basquiat” or “Bob Ross,” they’ll just name someone who was emotionally dead on arrival at Art Basel.
According to a BuzzPop quiz, the top five “favorite visual artists” among Zoomers include:

1. @CanvasDaddy

2. @NFTWitch69

3. That guy who made the crying Drake emoji NFT

4. “Whoever designed the Starbucks winter cup”

5. “I don’t really see art in binaries.”

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Their Curatorial Standard is “Vibe Compatibility”

In Gen Z’s world, a painting doesn’t have to say anything—just match their LED lights and bedroom astrology grid.
Art dealer testimonial:

“They don’t ask about brushwork or narrative. They ask, ‘Does it match my Venus in Scorpio?’”
Even Dali would cry… then sell his mustache as an NFT.

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They Think Frames Are Colonialist

Several young artists have demanded museums “de-frame” classical works, claiming the borders “reproduce power hierarchies.”
“I prefer to beam my work onto fog,” said one 22-year-old artist using the pseudonym Bl33py. “It’s more fluid and anti-capitalist.”
Meanwhile, critics complain they can’t review art that evaporates during a gust of wind.

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Frescoes Are “Mid,” But NFTs Are Forever

A Renaissance fresco? Fragile. Contextual. Rooted in history.
A looping animation of a cartoon bee yelling “Stonks”?
“That’s my generational trauma arc,” says TikTok art critic @CringeDuchamp.

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They Think Duchamp’s Toilet Was “Too On the Nose”

Gen Z has gone full interpretive apocalypse. One installation at a Miami gallery featured a Roomba filled with peanut butter chasing a naked man shouting “gentrify me.”
Another piece? A public urinal that plays Charli XCX when used.
Curators say: “We don’t know what’s art anymore, but it sold for $180K in Dogecoin.”

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Obscurity Equals Depth, Confusion Equals Genius

If no one understands it, it must be good.
Take Vortex Gullet, a sculpture made entirely of expired oat milk cartons and shame.
Review from Art Thoughtz 2.0:

“The incomprehensibility is the message. The message is nothing. The nothing is everything. Venmo me.”

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Their Taste is Dictated by the Algorithm

Art used to be personal. Now it’s dictated by TikTok’s “For You” page.
A recent survey found 82% of young buyers discovered their favorite artwork while doomscrolling between conspiracy memes and slime videos.
Taste is no longer curated—it’s swipe-fed.

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“Conceptual” Now Means “I Forgot to Finish It”

Old: A finished canvas with layers of meaning.
New: A single Post-it note with the word “ugh” scrawled in mascara.
It’s called “Emotional Exhaustion as Performance.” The artist calls it “an anti-work provocation.”
The rest of us call it trash.

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They’d Rather Own a Meme Than a Monet

A Claude Monet? Meh. Too… pond-y.
But a screenshot of Shrek drinking boba in a Prada tracksuit while shouting “SHEESH”?
That’s museum material.
And let’s not even talk about the collector who paid $32,000 for a JPEG of a penguin throwing up on a Tesla logo.
She now refers to herself as an “aesthetic disruptor.”

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What the Funny People Are Saying

“Art used to be a way to express the human soul. Now it’s a way to launder crypto.” — Ron White

“I bought a painting once. It had paint. On a thing. Crazy, right?” — Jerry Seinfeld

“They told me it was conceptual, but it was just a banana duct-taped to a napkin. I asked if I was being pranked or baptized into Brooklyn.” — Sarah Silverman

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Helpful Content: How to Pretend You Have Taste

• Use Latin words in critiques: Say things like “post-anthropocentric visual dialectics.” No one will question you.

• Buy something with color AND texture: Revolutionary, right?

• Frame your art: Or at least don’t tape it to your fridge next to your DoorDash coupons.

• Stop trusting TikTok to guide your aesthetic sensibilities: TikTok thinks you want art made by raccoons on Adderall.

• Visit a museum: No, not the Metaverse version. A real one. With gift shops and uncomfortable benches.

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Final Thoughts

Young people didn’t just kill art. They embalmed it in vaporwave and sold it to Elon Musk in exchange for Dogecoin and a self-esteem playlist. But maybe that’s the point.
Maybe art was never meant to be understood—just monetized, memed, and turned into a performance piece titled “Late Capitalism: Hold the Brush.”

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Disclaimer

This article is a 100% human collaboration between two sentient beings—the world’s oldest tenured professor and a 20-year-old philosophy major turned dairy farmer. No AI was harmed in the crafting of this generational art critique, although several NFTs were deeply offended.

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15 Reasons Young People Have No Taste in Art

They Think “JPEG Ownership” Is a Personality

Young collectors are shelling out thousands for pixelated penguins in bucket hats—but they still think owning a Matisse is “gatekeeping.”

They Were Raised on iPad Doodles and Instagram Filters

When your first exposure to visual culture is a Lisa Frank unicorn vomiting rainbows through a Valencia filter, it’s hard to appreciate chiaroscuro.

They Confuse AI-Generated Art With Emotion

If a neural network trained on 10,000 cat memes and climate doom infographics made it, it must be “raw” and “vulnerable,” right?

They Believe “Glitchcore” Is a Valid Movement

Because nothing says high art like a corrupted .GIF of Sonic the Hedgehog screaming over a stock photo of a dead mall.

They Think Banksy Invented Political Art

To them, Banksy is basically Picasso, but with more rat stencils and slightly better branding.

They Can’t Name a Single Artist Who’s Ever Been Dead

Unless it’s someone who died tragically young and had a limited vinyl pressing collab with Supreme.

They Buy Art Based on “Vibe Compatibility”

Forget oil painting technique—does it match their mood board titled “trauma-core but healing?”

They Think Owning a Frame Is a Colonialist Act

Why hang it on a wall when you can project it into the ether via AR goggles while vaping oat milk mist?

They Believe NFTs Are More Real Than Frescoes

A Renaissance fresco fades over time. An NFT of a vibrating eggplant? Immutable. Eternal. Blockchain-certified.

Their Favorite Medium Is “Digital Dumpster Fire”

They’ll dismiss watercolors as “mid,” but lose their minds over a looping animation of a crying emoji that turns into a stock chart.

They Think Duchamp’s Toilet Was Too Subtle

To be truly avant-garde in 2025, you have to drop an actual toilet on fire from a drone into the Met Gala.

They Equate “Obscure” With “Important”

If it’s popular, it’s basic. If no one understands it, and it involves barbed wire, nudity, and a post-capitalist trauma algorithm—now we’re talking.

They Mistake Algorithmic Serendipity for Taste

“Spotify suggested this artist, TikTok confirmed, Pinterest validated, and now I’m an art patron.” Taste? No, just data mining.

They Think “Conceptual” Means “I Forgot to Try”

A blank canvas? Bold. A pencil sketch? Cringe. A pile of laundry with a QR code? Revolutionary.

They’d Rather Own a Meme Than a Monet

Because nothing captures the spirit of postmodern disillusionment like a pixelated Wojak screaming “Just Buy It.”

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