2000s Art: Top Artists, Styles And Trends

Tate Modern opens, street art goes mainstream, and everything is designed on screen.

Below: the artists of the 2000s, the styles and movements, what was changing in art and design, and the pictures that were actually up in British homes.

Useful for a themed party, a quiz round, a reminiscence session or working out what someone grew up looking at.

Shop the cards that go with these

Shop prints and posters Look back to 2000 Look back to 2001 Look back to 2002

Art prints, cards and badges, drawn and printed by us

Original art prints, funny cards and pin badges, printed in the UK. Order on a working day and it usually goes out the same day.

Shop prints and posters

Artists of the 2000s

  • Banksy, whose work goes from vandalism to auction house inside the decade.
  • Antony Gormley - the Angel of the North (1998) defines the following ten years.
  • Grayson Perry, who won the Turner Prize in 2003.
  • Shepard Fairey, and the 2008 Hope poster.
  • Olafur Eliasson - The Weather Project at Tate Modern (2003).
  • Anish Kapoor, working at the scale of buildings.

Styles and movements

  • Street art and stencil work, collected and then commissioned.
  • Web 2.0 design: gradients, gloss, rounded corners and reflections.
  • Relational and installation art - the gallery as an experience.
  • Vector illustration and the beginning of flat design.
  • The photo print as affordable art, sold by the metre.

Art and design trends

  • Tate Modern opens in 2000 and becomes one of the most visited galleries in the world.
  • Digital cameras make everyone a photographer, and photography stops being scarce.
  • Print magazines start losing designers to the web.
  • The Fourth Plinth programme begins in 1999 and keeps the public arguing.
  • Affordable art fairs and print editions open the market to ordinary buyers.

On the walls at home

  • Canvas prints of a New York skyline or a poppy field.
  • Feature walls, wall stickers and vinyl lettering with a quote on it.
  • Photo books and framed digital snaps instead of albums.
  • Banksy reproductions - the balloon girl above the sofa.

Years covered in the 2000s

  • 2000 - The Millennium Dome, the fuel protests and Big Brother arriving from nowhere. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2000
  • 2001 - Foot-and-mouth, 11 September and the first iPod. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2001
  • 2002 - The Golden Jubilee, the death of the Queen Mother and Pop Idol fever. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2002
  • 2003 - Iraq, a record-breaking heatwave and England winning the Rugby World Cup. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2003
  • 2004 - Strictly and The X Factor both started, and the year ended with the tsunami. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2004
  • 2005 - The Olympic bid, the 7 July bombings and the Ashes coming home. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2005
  • 2006 - Arctic Monkeys, the Wii and another World Cup penalty shoot-out. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2006
  • 2007 - The iPhone, the smoking ban, the floods and the run on Northern Rock. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2007
  • 2008 - The banking crash, a brilliant Olympics and Lewis Hamilton on the last corner. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2008
  • 2009 - Recession, MPs' expenses and a Christmas number one campaign that worked. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2009
  • That is every 2000s year we have written up so far: 2000 to 2009.

How to use this

  • Themed party: pick one style from the list and let it decide the colours, the lettering and the invitations.
  • Quiz round: read an artist and ask for the decade, or read a style and ask for one artist who worked in it.
  • Reminiscence: ask what picture hung over the fireplace when they were young. Nearly everybody remembers.
  • Anyone born in 2000 turns 50 in 2050, 60 in 2060 and 70 in 2070.

Shop prints and posters

Found your words? Now find the card

Shop prints and posters Look back to 2000 Look back to 2001 Look back to 2002

How to write it so it lands

  • What hung in galleries and what hung at home were two different decades. Both are on this page.
  • For a themed party, take the colour palette from the decade's design rather than its paintings.
  • Charity shops are still the best place to find genuine prints and frames from any era.

Where to shop next

Frequently asked questions

Who were the most important artists of the 2000s?

Banksy, whose work goes from vandalism to auction house inside the decade. The full list above names the artists worth knowing from the decade.

What art styles were popular in the 2000s?

Street art and stencil work, collected and then commissioned. The styles section above covers the rest of the movements.

What art did people have in their homes in the 2000s?

Canvas prints of a New York skyline or a poppy field. The section above lists what was actually on British walls, which is rarely the same as what was in the galleries.

Do you sell fine art?

No. We make our own art prints, greeting cards and pin badges in the UK - original work, printed here. This page is free to read and free to copy.

Back to blog