The Myth of Scarcity
in "Under-Recognized" Art
| published January 3, 2026 |
By Eric T. Mazzacone
Thursday Review
contributer
I read ArtNews' recent list of "under-recognized artists" with mixed feelings. While it's valuable to spotlight overlooked work, the framing subtly reinforces a damaging idea: that recognition itself is scarce—a prize rationed to a deserving few.
Artists are not lottery winners. They are makers, thinkers, and chroniclers of culture. When artists go unseen, it is rarely because their work lacked merit; it is because institutions, markets, and media failed to look beyond familiar names and power structures.
Labeling artists as "under-recognized" risks flattening this reality. It shifts attention away from systemic exclusion and toward a narrative of delayed discovery, as though visibility arrives on a schedule rather than through access, advocacy, and opportunity.
Recognition is not the scarce resource. Power is. Platforms are. Gatekeeping is.
If we want a more equitable art world, we should move beyond celebratory lists and ask harder questions about how recognition is distributed and why so many voices remain invisible in the first place.
TR guest writer Eric T. Mazzacone works with tech firms and business executives to improve their communications and transform their words into trust; he is a board member of the Association of Science Communicators.
Photo credits: painting on Front Page: Abstract Number 5; Rob Shields. Painting shown above: Abstract Number 8; Rob Shields.
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