2010s Art: Top Artists, Styles And Trends

Instagram reshapes what art is for, flat design takes over, and immersive shows sell out.

Below: the artists of the 2010s, 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.

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Artists of the 2010s

  • Yayoi Kusama, whose Infinity Rooms became the most photographed art in the world.
  • Ai Weiwei, working as artist and dissident at once.
  • Jenny Holzer and Barbara Kruger, whose text work suits the feed perfectly.
  • Kehinde Wiley, painting portraits at old-master scale.
  • Es Devlin, designing stages that count as sculpture.
  • Morag Myerscough, whose colour and lettering turned up on buildings everywhere.

Styles and movements

  • Flat design and then material design - shadows allowed back in, cautiously.
  • Immersive and instagrammable installation art.
  • Millennial pink, brass, marble surfaces and one enormous plant.
  • Hand lettering and the return of visible craft in branding.
  • Street art fully institutional, with festivals and council murals.

Art and design trends

  • Instagram becomes the main route by which people see art, and shows get designed for it.
  • Free entry keeps British galleries among the best attended anywhere.
  • Crowdfunding and print-on-demand let illustrators sell direct.
  • Every company rebrands to a simplified sans-serif logo.
  • Art fairs, editions and auction records dominate the art press.

On the walls at home

  • Gallery walls: a dozen small frames arranged as one big one.
  • Etsy and independent illustrators selling prints direct.
  • Neon signs with a slogan, and the same three houseplants.
  • Everything photographed for the feed before anyone sat down.

Years covered in the 2010s

  • 2010 - A hung parliament, a volcano that stopped the planes and the first iPad. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2010
  • 2011 - The royal wedding, the riots and Adele's 21. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2011
  • 2012 - The Diamond Jubilee and the London Olympics in one extraordinary summer. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2012
  • 2013 - A royal baby, Andy Murray at Wimbledon and the horsemeat scandal. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2013
  • 2014 - The Scottish referendum, the ice bucket challenge and streaming joining the chart. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2014
  • 2015 - The Queen's record reign, Leicester's title run beginning and Adele's return. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2015
  • 2016 - Leicester won the league, Britain voted to leave and a lot of people died. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2016
  • 2017 - Grenfell, the Manchester Arena attack and a snap election that went wrong. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2017
  • 2018 - A royal wedding, a heatwave and England reaching a World Cup semi-final. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2018
  • 2019 - A cricket World Cup final nobody could believe and a December election. Full year: /blogs/news/look-back-to-2019
  • That is every 2010s year we have written up so far: 2010 to 2019.

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 2010 turns 50 in 2060, 60 in 2070 and 70 in 2080.

Shop prints and posters

Found your words? Now find the card

Shop prints and posters Look back to 2010 Look back to 2011 Look back to 2012

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 2010s?

Yayoi Kusama, whose Infinity Rooms became the most photographed art in the world. The full list above names the artists worth knowing from the decade.

What art styles were popular in the 2010s?

Flat design and then material design - shadows allowed back in, cautiously. The styles section above covers the rest of the movements.

What art did people have in their homes in the 2010s?

Gallery walls: a dozen small frames arranged as one big one. 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.

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