Vincenzo Di Rosa on the Crisis and Transformation of Art Criticism

In an interview for Artribune's ongoing inquiry into the state of art criticism, researcher and critic Vincenzo Di Rosa argues that criticism never stopped but is in deep crisis, especially in Italy. He asserts that criticism inherently involves exclusion and value judgment, and the challenge is to develop new criteria beyond the Western, white, heteropatriarchal canon. Di Rosa distinguishes criticism from curating, which he says has overshadowed both critics and artists since the 1990s. He criticizes curators for being too aligned with market dynamics and fleeting themes, reducing artists to mere illustrations. He calls for criticism to reclaim autonomy and independence, operating as pockets of resistance outside the art system while maintaining a broad view of artworks and their reception. Di Rosa laments the lack of direct engagement with art in academia and the disconnect between art historians and contemporary production. He blames art magazines for selling out to fashion, prioritizing Instagram followers and marginal identities over critical depth. He criticizes the wave of theoretical citationism (object-oriented ontology, speculative realism, accelerationism, posthumanism) that has dominated criticism and curating for a decade, often applied clumsily. His proposed remedy is slowness: following few artists, staying updated on their work, listening critically, and writing always from the artwork, not theory. The interview was conducted by Caterina Angelucci.