The exhibition 'Genuine Fake Premium Economy' at London's ICA explores the generational trauma of millennials and Gen Z artists shaped by the 2008 financial crisis. Featuring works by Buck Ellison, Jasmine Gregory, and Jenna Bliss, the show uses satire, nostalgia, and fictionalized biographies to critique marketing, class privilege, and the art world's complicity in economic bubbles. Highlights include Ellison's 'Jack's Office' (2026), a fictional Lehman Brothers exec's office, and Bliss's video 'True Entertainment' (2023–24), set at a fictional art fair reminiscent of Art Basel.
The exhibition matters because it directly addresses the disillusionment of artists who came of age during a recession, questioning the meritocracy of the art world and the superficiality of its marketing. By blending humor with sincerity, the show offers a self-implicating critique of how economic precarity and class dynamics shape artistic production and consumption, resonating with broader cultural anxieties about financial instability and authenticity.