In 2025, the art world according to Artnet showed surprising trends, with frames taking center stage, unsettling landscapes, coveted miniatures, and a market dominated by the “red-chip” aesthetic.
Frames have become protagonists in contemporary works
For much of the twentieth century, the frame was minimized, almost invisible, so as not to interfere with the painting. In recent years, however, many artists have overturned this paradigm.
In recent fairs and exhibitions, even a quick glance reveals sculpted, painted, or assembled edges that take on a central role. Artists like Stephanie Temma Hier, Harry Gould Harvey IV, and Holly Lane design structures that do not merely contain the image.
These frames become conceptual and material extensions of the work, sources of narrative and memory. They also draw on art history, from the Renaissance to craft traditions, to build a new liminal language between painting, sculpture, and design.
What distinguishes the so-called red-chip art phenomenon today
In contrast to the established notion of blue-chip art, associated with canonical authors and stable valuations, a more flamboyant and daring scene has emerged. This scenario, described as red-chip, favors immediate visibility and spectacular impact.
In this context, historical prestige and traditional connoisseurship matter less. Instead, flashy works prevail, sometimes deliberately kitsch, like a gigantic KAWS Companion or an NFT signed by Beeple, often traded through cryptocurrency transactions.
According to Armstrong’s analysis, this universe of artists and collectors has cracked the idea of refined exclusivity that has long dominated the market.
However, many insiders continue to view this spectacular drift with skepticism, while acknowledging its growing influence on global commercial dynamics.
Why the new pastoral is anything but idyllic
The pastoral genre, born centuries ago, has traditionally celebrated a harmonious idea of the countryside and rural life. In recent years, this imagery has reemerged, but in profoundly altered forms.
While pop culture feeds on cottagecore, “tradwife” influencers, and nostalgia for ancestral diets, some artists adopt the vocabulary of the landscape to subvert it. Emma Webster, Samantha Joy Groff, and Vera Iliatova construct scenarios that seem familiar but are crossed by unsettling details.
These visions, which Katie White defines as “para-pastoral,” use fields, woods, and skies not as a refuge but as a stage for tensions. They also address themes of belonging, social stratification, and environmental collapse, transforming the landscape into a complex metaphor for the present.
Why small-format works are gaining ground
At the beginning of 2025, journalist Kate Brown observed a widespread change: the paintings on display seemed to be shrinking. This visual impression corresponded to a real phenomenon, with growing attention to small formats.
The choice of contained sizes primarily responds to artistic needs. Many authors favor a more intimate relationship with the viewer, facilitated by reduced surfaces and more collected viewing rhythms, as suggested by the exhibition “Olivia Jia, Perimeter” at the Margot Samel gallery in New York in 2023.
However, there are also logistical and economic motivations. In a market marked by uncertainties, after the euphoria for large formats between the late 2010s and early 2020s, the management of smaller works, easier to ship, store, and exhibit, has become attractive for galleries and collectors.
Moreover, exhibition events like the major Vermeer retrospective at the Rijksmuseum in 2023 have reminded us how the focus on detail and reduced scale can have an emotional and narrative strength equal to, if not greater than, monumental works.
What these trends tell us about the art system of 2025
Overall, the art trends that emerged in 2025 indicate a fluid ecosystem, balancing between conceptual research and spectacle. Expanded frames, disturbing landscapes, sought-after miniatures, and red-chip aesthetics reveal different sensibilities, but are united by the desire to redefine hierarchies and conventions.
That said, these narrative threads do not offer a single direction, but rather a constellation of responses to the same question: how to represent, collect, and experience art in an era marked by economic instability, cultural polarization, and technological acceleration.
As expert in digital marketing, Amelia began working in the fintech sector in 2014 after writing her thesis on Bitcoin technology. Previously author for several international crypto-related magazines and CMO at Eidoo. She is now the co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Cryptonomist and Econique.
She is also a marketing teacher at Digital Coach in Milan and she published a book about NFTs for the Italian publishing house Mondadori, while she is also helping artists and company to entering in the sector. As advisor, Amelia is also involved in metaverse-related project such as The Nemesis and OVER.
