the Australian novels that satirize the art world

The art world can be a space of wonder, beauty, courage, connection and community. As an art critic and art historian, I have been swimming in these waters for the past decade. But it can also feel like a poorly written joke: formed by the 1%, populated by the shrinking middle class, pickled by anarchists and run by unpaid interns. Perhaps "art worlds" is a better way to describe the barely overlapping spheres. It can be difficult to find the point between the contradictions between clean wine and conspicuous consumption.

It is this underside, full of friction and contradiction, that ...