Has Craft Become the New Radical?

They say that the Venice Biennale often acts as a mirror of our time. Not because artists predict the future, but because they put into visual form what society is feeling and thinking before the rest of us have fully realised it.  

In recent years, contemporary art has been dominated by technology, large-scale installations and digital experimentation.

That is why one thing struck me this year: how many artists are working with craft, textiles and traditional techniques. 

Ebony G. Patterson (Jamaica), Central Pavilion, Venice Biennale

I kept finding myself standing in front of embroidered works, woven pieces, ceramics and objects that had clearly taken hundreds, sometimes thousands, of hours to make.

Not exactly what many people would expect in the age of AI, where an image can be created in seconds.

It made me wonder whether we are witnessing a cultural shift. In an age increasingly shaped by speed and automation, many artists seem to be moving in the opposite direction.

Medina Joldybek (Kazakhstan), Turandot, Palazzo Franchetti, Venice

Perhaps that is why so many artists are returning to techniques once dismissed as old-fashioned or associated with domestic work rather than "serious" art.  

Just think about it: in a world obsessed with speed, craft itself may have become radical! 

Marcia Kure (Nigeria), Central Pavilion, Giardini, Venice Biennale 

Could this be the paradox of our time?

The more technology accelerates, the more we seem to value things that cannot be rushed, things that require patience, repetition, skill and human presence. Things that bear the marks of the hand that made them.

Whether this is a lasting shift or simply a momentary reaction remains to be seen.

Junko Oki (Japan), Art Basel 2025 via Kosaku Kanechika Gallery

But walking through Venice this year, I couldn't help feeling that many artists were pointing in the same direction – slowness, materiality and the imperfect beauty of things made by hand.