The Daily Gentrifier (Multiple Editions)

Created by artist, writer, and editor Dushko Petrovich, The Daily Gentrifier brings together the lived content of gentrification with the aesthetic form of gentrification. The newspaper focuses on various locations: New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Columbus, and soon Tallinn. Using humour and wit, these editions aren’t focused on accusatory finger-pointing that dominates the discourse surrounding displacement, rent increase, and artist responsibility.

As Petrovich explained: “I wanted to make something conspicuous, yes, and awkward. The format is 20” by 33” – historical broadsheet size – because I wanted to reference the history of newspapers in the 19th century, when they would be posted up in public, often in frontier situations (…) The tactic with this project is to use those fonts, use the letterpress, use the old-timey format to actually speak frankly about what is going on when neighbourhoods get gentrified.”

Gentrification is a complex subject that brings together race, class, real estate, history, and architecture, and the artist’s aim in using this concept is to invite audiences to untangle it and create conversations that go deeper than familiar tropes of “hipster aesthetics” and into practical directions.