GA Journal
Journal of Global Arts Studies and Curatorial Practices vol.3 2022

As a ubiquitous part of contemporary daily life, social media platforms influence our lifestyles, ways of thinking, and sense of beauty. In particular, Instagram, which started its service in 2010, now has more than one billion active monthly users. Museums, galleries and artists alike have endorsed the platform as a means of public communication, affording unprecedented visibility to artistic production and curation. While online exhibitions are gaining traction, participatory art on social media is also on the rise. In response to these trends, this paper samples popular hashtags and compares five accounts of artists and other people in the art world, asking how they take part in the "Aesthetic Society" through circulating artworks and ideas on Instagram. These accounts were selected by examining #art (#6), #drawing (#65), and #artist (#66) from the top 100 hashtags.

Invoking Manovich’s distinction between casual, professional and designed photography, I aim to explore the presumptions and purposes of posting art on Instagram from the perspective of art professionals. Manovich’s research was grounded on his analysis of a commodious range of all users, but delicate to relate to "Instagramism" - the modern aesthetics of designed photos on Instagram - with art professionals. By further subdividing it in this study, people in the art world will be able to access designed photography. To conclude, I examine the role of Instagram as an arena of artistic expression and as a base of activities for the art community, considering the possibilities and premises afforded by social media to the way people participate in art.