Generation Z cannot be flattened into a single, simple category. Despite the public’s perception of a group of social media obsessed and ego-driven young people, Gen Zers—born between 1997 and 2015—maintain a diverse range of perspectives. And what’s often dismissed is the way that world altering events and technological advancements have impacted their lives. Gen Z grew up in a post-9/11 internet age; their young adulthood coincided with the decentralization of information, more accessible education, and the erosion of fact-based knowledge. And the need to confront our damaged and dying planet from an early age left an indelible mark on the generationas a whole.

When it comes to visual artists of Gen Z, while they might share characteristics with their older peers—addressing issues of identity, cultural taboos, sexuality, and social and political unrest—the specific contexts in which they matured distinguishes them from their forebears.

Monserrat Palacios

Monserrat Palacios’s otherworldly compositions include highly detailed, grotesque-yet-beautiful depictions of cyborgs, sea creatures, machinery, plant life, and other sci-fi-inspired organisms. The artist’s colored-pencil drawings and paintings are rife with endless detail, primarily drawn from memory. “I don’t work through references, from life, or from photos,” Palacios said. “I don’t create a picture as it is supposed to look,as if it were only one thing, and had only one point of view. Memory is a fluid thing; it is not fixed.” Her practice includes traditional pen, pencil, and oil paint, as well as digital and bio art.

“Just as I think there is not a single world of art but many, there is not a single motivation [to create art],” Palacios said of her generation. “Some artists are very political, socially committed. They do net art and hacktivism, they talk about techno-power and bioethics, artivism. Others simply want to commodify their work and earn money—or conversely, do something that cannot be commodified.”

It is almost a prerequisite of Gen Z artists to express acute awareness of the world at large. “The challenges facing this generation are ecological and economic, and therefore political and ethical,” Palacios said. Her work is entrenched in understandings of image theory, communication theory, information theory, and general systems theory. “We face complex systems that require complex thinking,” she said. “The challenge is not to lose ourselves in the face of the overwhelming load of activities.”

There is a delicate balance that must be achieved when it comes to maturing as an artist. For Palacios, this means nurturing your interests while also pushing the bounds of your knowledge. “I believe that creativity, the best creativity, is never born from comfort zones,” she said. “It is never born without a previous struggle, without resistance.”