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Contemporary Mixed Media

CONTEMPORARY STYLE

Used to refer to a time rather than an aesthetic, Contemporary art generally describes pieces created after 1970 or being made by living artists anywhere in the world. This immediacy means it encompasses art responding to the present moment through diverse subjects, media and themes. Contemporary painting, sculpture, photography, performance, digital art, video and more frequently includes work that is attempting to reshape current ideas about what art can be, from Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s use of candy to memorialize a lover he lost to AIDS-related complications to Jenny Holzer’s ongoing “Truisms,” a Conceptual series that sees provocative messages printed on billboards, T-shirts, benches and other public places that exist outside of formal exhibitions and the conventional “white cube” of galleries.

Contemporary art has been pushing the boundaries of creative expression for years. Its disruption of the traditional concepts of art are often aiming to engage viewers in complex questions about identity, society and culture. In the latter part of the 20th century, contemporary movements included Land art, in which artists like Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer create large-scale, site-specific sculptures, installations and other works in soil and bodies of water; Sound art, with artists such as Christian Marclay and Susan Philipsz centering art on sonic experiences; and New Media art, in which mass media and digital culture inform the work of artists such as Nam June Paik and Rafaël Rozendaal.

The first decades of the 21st century have seen the growth of Contemporary African art, the revival of figurative painting, the emergence of street art and the rise of NFTs, unique digital artworks that are powered by blockchain technology.

Major Contemporary artists practicing now include Ai Weiwei, Cecily Brown, David Hockney, Yayoi Kusama, Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami and Kara Walker.

Find a collection of Contemporary prints, photography, paintings, sculptures and other art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Contemporary
Artist: Kat Flyn
Marriage Equality
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work celebrates the passage of the Marriage Equality Act. Two old fashion shaving brushes represent a gay couple sanctifying their union inside a chape...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

God, Guns and Greed
Located in New Orleans, LA
There is an odd, unholy even, relationship between guns, religion, and wealth. The connection between religion and violence is well documented and the pages of history run red with the blood of the victims of the devout. Jesus would certainly not be walking around strapped if he lived today and yet it is very common for enthusiastic supporters of the 2nd amendment...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Death of a Racist Stereotype
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Antique large handmade wood racist “Dancing Dan” puppet with exaggerated lips and distressed clothes, handmade trumpet, old wood handmade coffin. Can be a wall object or shelf...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Karen
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Handmade old wood throne, hand carved wood puppet in old dress and boat flag sash, real pearls, vintage Rolex watch, probably fake, vintage painted pictures girls' career game pieces, handmade wood controller, antique sterling silver hand mirror...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Room Service
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Antique carved & painted wood racist stereotype maid holding vintage toy cap hand grenade in grenade canister used in Afghanistan "Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

White Man's Burden
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: antique water-buffalo trophy horns with attached wood American flag crest from the Filipino/American War period (1899-1902). Large vintage rifle box...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Under Repair
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Three vintage wood handmade and jointed dancing racist stereotype figures painted as Uncle Sam, one handmade vintage painted wood stereotype cutout. Handmade painted wood American...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Bride
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: old wood mantle clock box refashioned to resemble a Morocco Riad mansion, 6 antique painted skittles pins, antique photo with ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Found Objects, Mixed Media

Noah's Slaughterhouse
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: painted wood building refashioned out of an old seed box, constructed old wood toy boat to resemble the Ark, vintage carved & painted an...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Found Objects, Mixed Media

The Science is Not Settled
Located in New Orleans, LA
Of course, the Science is settled with regards to the connection between tobacco and lung cancer. In response to the impact this had on the tobacco industry, big corporations began v...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

The Last Stand
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: wood stadium-like stands with 13 hand-carved & painted people, 1 resin & wood figure, painted reversible wood carnival game clown with one side a smile and the reverse a frown, hand-painted wood flag...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Found Objects, Mixed Media

Shooting Gallery
Located in New Orleans, LA
This takes dead aim at how being Black in our culture is a very dangerous game. The imagery is of an old arcade shooting gallery. Throughout the 1800s, right up until the 1960s, carnival games...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

The Greatest Show On Earth
Located in New Orleans, LA
It is a sign of an unhealthy society when fringe personalities are increasingly found not on the fringe but in its mainstream. They bring with them ignorance, prejudice, and irration...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Found Objects, Mixed Media

Magdalene Laundries
Located in New Orleans, LA
The Magdalene asylums, also known as the Magdalene Laundries, were institutions set up to house “fallen women.” The women – young girls usually - confined in these institutions were,...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Fortress America
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: vintage wood fort with hand-painted graffiti, a vintage handmade wood carving of Uncle Sam & Trump, confederate flag scrap blindfold, metal chains, 4 vintage fl...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Visitors
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: old wood dugout made from an antique stool, hand-painted graffiti on all sides & back & roof under old wood painted and distressed scoreboard with graffiti bench inside. "I like using baseball...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Beyond the Wall
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: Unusual antique racist carnival baseball toss game-head of racist stereotype Mexican man (hat knocks off when hit with ball), Wall constructed of wood with acrylic paintings & drawings of Mexican asylum seekers and Gandhi's shadow, vintage metal toy...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Found Objects, Mixed Media

Sentinel Species
Located in New Orleans, LA
It is now 2020 and Covid-19 is loose in the world. Medical personnel are our first line of defense against this out-of-control pandemic. We seem able to provide weapons and protective gear for the police as they battle protestors, who are marching against racial injustice, but not able to provide PPE clothing and other medical equipment...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

The American Way
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: vintage wood boxes containing 20 vintage handmade & painted wood toy game men, vintage handheld dexterity game that reads “The American Way – Liberty and Justice for All...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

The Doll House
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Endless Crusades (The)
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: antique wood Mexican Nicho shrine with drawer in back to collect coin donations, old wood legs with wooden wheels, Antique WWI brass artillery sh...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Butch
Located in New Orleans, LA
Here's to all the girls who risked disapproval and ridicule from their peers and parents as they shunned dolls and dresses for the toys and lives their brothers had. --- Kat Flyn i...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Hymnal (The)
Located in New Orleans, LA
In this series, titled Ghost Portraits, an individual, long deceased, is represented through a collection of “saved” items – old photographs, a lock of hai...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

It's Only a Game
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: very old hand-carved bat, old handmade ball, hand-carved wood toy plane, Old wood handmade toolbox, one photo of young men gathered to play baseball ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Found Objects, Mixed Media

Being Harveyed
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work is a crude – but of course that is the point – depiction of Harvey Weinstein's alleged serial acts of sexual harassment, assault, and even rape; acts long and shamefully ig...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Trailer Park
Located in New Orleans, LA
The election of Donald Trump placed a spotlight on lower-class white families. This work lampoons the stereotypes we often have of those families. The piece is intentionally whimsical. The point is that until we see beyond superficial (and misleading) stereotypes, we have little hope of making any progress toward solving issues related to this, or any, class of individuals. --- Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove of artifacts and collectables, which she began using to create assemblage art in the 1990's. In 2000 she sold her business and moved to Cuyamaca, a remote community in the mountains outside of San Diego to devote herself exclusively to her artwork. In 2003 her work was interrupted when the Cedar Fire swept through San Diego county and destroyed the forest, her home & studio along with almost all of her collections and works of art. Following the fire she relocated to San Francisco, where she spent a decade concentrating on her art in her studio in SOMA and exhibiting at galleries in the Bay Area. In 2015 she returned to San Diego and now works out of her studio in La Jolla, exhibiting there and in Los Angeles. Kat Flyn refers to herself as an Assemblage Sculptor and her works as Political Art or Protest Art. She separates herself from other assemblage artists in that she only employs “saved” as opposed to “found” objects in her work; and her pieces always have a political or cultural narrative to them rather than being surreal or abstract. She also constructs or refashions many of the pieces which she uses in her art – a soft drink box into a tenement building (Affordable Housing 2017), a jewelry box into a wheelchair (Last Lily Foot 2016), an old shoe shine box into a hearse (Katrina 2018). The result is her work is closer in appearance to Folk Art than Assemblage Art. STATEMENT: Strictly speaking I am an assemblage artist, but in fact I construct more than assemble my works. I search out collectables, artifacts and woodcarvings and then build scenes to make statements regarding American society. Even when using artifacts from earlier centuries, my theme is almost always about contemporary America. Social injustice, racism, sexism, and violence - aspects of our national psyche – exist in the present but have their seeds planted in our past. Additionally, the artifacts I use often are meant to amplify the meaning of the work. For instance, the Black stereotype wood figures I use in many of my pieces were almost certainly crafted by a White person. By using such artifacts I ask: what kind of society produces such items in the first place? In my art I make a strict distinction between found objects and saved objects.. A found object - which most assemblage artists use in their works - is devoid of intrinsic or emotional value, having been discarded by its owner as worthless or broken. A saved object on the other hand has retained value, either because it was intrinsically valuable or because emotional value had been added to it (such as a photograph, an old shoe, a vintage toy) and consequently it was saved rather than discarded. The fact that I only use “saved objects” often results in viewers being attracted to the individual pieces within my works rather than seeing the narrative I am attempting to portray. The pieces on display in this exhibit are from my American Home Series. I have assembled an array of old artifacts, carved figures, and iconic symbols, each spotlighting an aspect of living conditions within our borders; and as is consistent with my art, focus is placed on failings in our social contract – overcrowded tenements, trailer parks...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

In Memory of Sally Hemmings
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Victorian blouse, antique mirror, photo, necklace, old frame --- KAT FLYN is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

The Wall
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work references “The Wall” that Trump made a central part of his campaign for president and which, at the date of this piece's completion, still looms large in his demands for i...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Home Grenade
Located in New Orleans, LA
Medium: Vintage wood pantry shelf with wood transfer photos of dancing hand grenades & cupcakes and housewives with guns, vintage decals, 5 food cans with ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Found Objects, Mixed Media

Ammo Box
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: WWI ammo box remade into an ambulance, metal blimp, hand painted Red Cross, inside - Red Cross armband & old photo of soldier and nurse,...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Last Lily Foot
Located in New Orleans, LA
Foot binding was a practice that crippled Chinese women for a thousand years and vestiges of it linger in the spiked heel and high heeled fashion popular in the present day. The idea...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Street Walker
Located in New Orleans, LA
Much has been written about women who walk the streets looking for men to pay them for sex. Is this anyone's first career choice? A Victorian corset a...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Lady Parts
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work is fashioned as a cash register, including brothel coins, to signify how our culture cashes in on the female anatomy. (Note: It includes a Playboy Bunny Manual from the 196...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Home by Christmas
Located in New Orleans, LA
In the fall of 1914 soldiers marched off to War singing the popular song, “We'll Be Home by Christmas.” The four years of incredible carnage that ensued should have stood for all tim...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Go Ask Alice
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work references the anti-abortion movement in Texas, as well as many other states, where they have attempted to curtail a woman's Choice to the point that the only realistic cho...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Hard Time
Located in New Orleans, LA
Mass Incarceration has become a civil rights issue in our country. People of color are dramatically overrepresented in our prison system, mainly due to nonviolent crimes stemming fro...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Black Jack
Located in New Orleans, LA
This very simple and straight forward presentation consists of three weapons, a billy club, a truncheon, and a sap, all employed historically by the police, and a statue of an Africa...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Ghost Girl
Located in New Orleans, LA
In this series, titled Ghost Portraits, an individual, long deceased, is represented through a collection of “saved” items – old photographs, a lock of hai...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Hail Mary
Located in New Orleans, LA
I am paying homage to all those Black single parent moms who work menial jobs, often more than one, so their children can have a better life…Saints. --- Kat Flyn is a self-taught a...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Had Wilson
Located in New Orleans, LA
This is a portrait of a Zydeco rub-board (frottoir) player and his homemade instrument with a beer can tambourine, metal shaker, and old used accessories hanging from the rub-board. ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Flashback
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: vintage wood "creeper", framed with deconstructed 1970s frame, vintage flag bell bottoms, vintage Peter Max sneakers, photo transfer of manipulated photo on canvas, old top hat with Zig Zag man and anti-war button, Conscientious Objector book, Volkswagen Repair for Idiots book, old photos, political pins, 1960s pins, metal flower pins...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Repressed Memories
Located in New Orleans, LA
assemblage sculpture: Hand carved wood woman tied to hand carved staff of woman with snake used as handle of old wood toolbox, old rolls of string, twine & rope, hand made wood & gesso articulated man...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Washerwoman's Daughter
Located in New Orleans, LA
This work pays homage to the sacrifices that were made – especially by African-American women working menial labor jobs – so that the next generation could have a chance for a better...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Oath (The)
Located in New Orleans, LA
In this series, titled Ghost Portraits, an individual, long deceased, is represented through a collection of “saved” items – old photographs, a lock of hai...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Child Bride
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Another Mourning
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Jubilee
Located in New Orleans, LA
In this series, titled Ghost Portraits, an individual, long deceased, is represented through a collection of “saved” items – old photographs, a lock of hai...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Ladies Room
Located in New Orleans, LA
The question of gender assignment has recently received media attention after North Carolina repealed an anti-discrimination law aimed at allowing access to public bathrooms based...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Birthmark
Located in New Orleans, LA
The life simulated here is of a young mixed race woman facing life in a Jim Crow era - an era where one drop of African American blood consigned a person to a second- class existence...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Trump Memorial
Located in New Orleans, LA
A model of the Lincoln Memorial is defaced, suggesting that metaphorically Trump has debased our public discourse with his lies and incessant tweeting. A contrast is drawn between Li...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

King Cotton
Located in New Orleans, LA
King Cotton was a slogan of the Deep South. The stereotyped wood figures on top are jubilant. The photos represent the two opposing sides of the slave economy. --- Kat Flyn is a se...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Buckaroo
Located in New Orleans, LA
This piece, along with its accompanying graphic book, is about the limitations society puts on girls. Just when a girl thinks she has the hang of it, she is introduced to high heels ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Dream On
Located in New Orleans, LA
“Love,” to quote the Beatles, “was all you need.” Looking back, the Hippie subculture, included a high dosage of naiveté. --- Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working pr...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Traveling Show
Located in New Orleans, LA
Kat Flyn is a self-taught assemblage artist working presently out of San Diego. She began her career as a costume designer in Southern California. Over the years she amassed a trove ...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Mule Twins
Located in New Orleans, LA
The word “Mule” was commonly used to refer to African Male Slaves. This work has many of the components and references that show up in my other works - references to how African Amer...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Mixed Media

Materials

Mixed Media

Contemporary mixed media for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Contemporary mixed media available for sale on 1stDibs. Works in this style were very popular during the 21st Century and Contemporary, but contemporary artists have continued to produce works inspired by this movement. If you’re looking to add mixed media created in this style to introduce contrast in an otherwise neutral space in your home, the works available on 1stDibs include elements of blue, purple, orange, red and other colors. Many Pop art paintings were created by popular artists on 1stDibs, including Chelsea Davine, Giuliano Bekor, Mark Jackson, and Anastasia Pelias. Frequently made by artists working with Mixed Media, and Paint and other materials, all of these pieces for sale are unique and have attracted attention over the years. Not every interior allows for large Contemporary mixed media, so small editions measuring 0.4 inches across are also available.

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