Do artists need to get out more?

I found visiting Exeter Contemporary Open (ECO) exhibition a depressing experience. Not because of the quality of the work or the curation, but because of what it tells me about the state of mind of emerging visual artists.

Individually, each of the artists seemed to be doing thoughtful, meaningful work. The show looked great: it was well-organised and coherent. What worried me was the impression it left behind.

First off, almost all of the work was tiny - even pocket-sized. It's been suggested that this miniaturisation may be a reaction against the pompous, macho 'bigger is better' ethos that's ruled art for so long. Sadly, it also seems to indicate self effacement, as if art barely deserves its place in the gallery, let alone society as a whole.

I also think it has much to do with economics. The high cost of studio space means many artists have to work in cramped or shared studios, or even at home. It's simply not possible to make large, messy work when you have no space. Then there are the costs associated with transporting work to and from galleries. Far more practical to make work that you can post. The materials used by the ECO artists were low-cost too: cut-up paper and tape, tiny canvases with meagre applications of dilute paint, an old telly and some sticks.

It wasn't just the materials that were everyday, the subject matter veered strongly in that direction too. For example, there were paintings (lots of paintings) based on half-remembered memories and old snapshots and a film of two metal sauceboats floating in a sink. It's not just me; the short catalogue is awash with words like 'banal', 'ordinary', 'mundane', 'inconsequential', 'anonymous', 'thinned down', 'pared back', 'pared down', 'barely rendered', 'shrunken', 'erased'.

What about the the unusual, the important, the angry, the urgent, the definite? Where is the world outside of our heads? This isn't a criticism of the individual artists or their work. I firmly believe that small and introvert is just as worthwhile as big and extrovert. But when you're presented with a survey of 14 contemporary artists drawn from across the UK and the impression is of a collective whisper, there's something badly wrong.

Open exhibitions are always something of a lottery - for selectors and participants. It may be just chance that brought together such a concentration of the miniature and mundane. Or a particular dynamic between the selectors that led them to a reject more gutsy, spiky, noisy submissions.

But I can't help feeling it's a symptom of where artists are at. Deprived of money and resources, we are stuck behind our own front doors making work with a few lolly sticks and some old string.

Remember, ECO 2010 is a survey of work made before the massive cuts in arts funding. Is it a premonition of how lack of resources will drain the blood from visual art, or is there even worse to come?

Exeter Contemporary Open 2010, 16 September - 3 November 2010, Exeter Phoenix, Gandy Street, Exeter EX4 3LS