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Please enjoy this article on contemporary street art written by Kerry Hall here at Quastel Associates;
Such is the power of Banksy’s work and current fame; it can prove difficult to move past this phenomenon and shine a light on the other talented street artists creating a stir in the art world. There are certainly plenty of them and their work varies greatly, offering exciting new takes on the world around us. Not only this but sales of their works are climbing steadily, and certain names are fetching some astounding prices at auction. Here we look at some of the most influential and valuable contemporary street artists on the scene.
Stik: This British street artist from London is known for his stick-figure people. Famous throughout the globe, his murals can now be found in Europe, Asia and America. His style is simplistic, distinctive and is proving very popular at auction. Christie’s sold an acrylic on board piece of his ‘Untitled' (2010) for £125,000 earlier this year and a maquette titled ‘Holding Hands’ recently went for an impressive £287,500.
Shepard Fairey: An American graphic artist and social activist, Fairey uses prints, murals and posters to make social comment on the world around him. The artist is most famous for his ‘Hope’ series featuring an image of Barack Obama which came to be a widely recognised symbol for Obama’s election campaign in 2008. Limited edition lithographs of the image can fetch between £30,000 to £40,000. A bigger splash was made with the artist’s ‘Afrocentric’ however. The mixed media collage on paper sold for nearly £70,000.
Invader: This French street artist is famous for his ceramic tile mosaics depicting pixelated images from video games from the 1980’s such the aliens from ‘Space Invaders’ (where he took his pseudonym from). His works can be found in cities all over the world. At auction, works such as ‘LA_80’ or ‘Small retinal invasion 2’ comfortably fetch £50,000 hammer price but on occasion this can double with ‘Alias HK_43’ going for over £100,000 in 2020. These pale in comparison to Artcurial’s sale of his large-scale mosaic ‘Vienna (2008)’ however. The 7-foot, 2-panel work took over £300,000 breaking the artist’s auction record.
Kaws: This American artist and designer has had a varied and interesting career. Starting off as a graffiti artist reworking advertisements on billboards in the 1990’s, he went on to work in animation for Disney and has since worked designing toys and also in collaboration with clothing brands. His most iconic work includes repeated use of a cast of figurative characters and motifs. At auction, a screen-print can go for around £60,000 whereas his hand painted resin figurine ‘KAWS ASTRO BOY’ took nearly £300,000 and an acrylic on canvas titled ‘KAWSBOB’ surpassed this going for just over £300,000.
This is just a selection of the street artists making a name for themselves in the world of art. What it goes to show however is that street art can be extremely valuable and so a limited edition print bought years ago may have seen an incredible increase in price in recent years.
To find out more about an art valuation with Quastel Associates, please call 0207 253 1710 or click here.
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