Investing in street art guide
Why you should be investing in street art right now
If Banksy is the only street artist you know, then you’re behind the times. It may have taken almost 40 years from a time when street art was considered vandalism, but the art world is now well and truly embracing it. Global venues on the contemporary art investment scene like Malaga, Milan and Montreal are hosting more and more artists like American-born contemporary artist Marquis Lewis, a.k.a. RETNA. Artists like RETNA have moved from the side-lines to centre stage as big names in the corporate world take interest – he has taken charge of production design at the San Francisco Opera, worked with Nike and Louis Vuitton on advertising campaigns, and even designed one of Justin Bieber’s album covers. RETNA’s estimated net worth is around $5mil and his work sells from around $18k up to $230k.
Needless to say it’s a long hike from running around the back of train tracks with a spray can to selling artworks for hundreds of thousands. However the art world now has an open mind – and more importantly an open cheque book - towards it. Buyers have realised that young fashionable fan bases of millions sway global trends and tastes. This isn’t something the establishment takes lightly either: Shephard Fairey, dubbed the ‘Jay-Z of street art’ and creator of the ‘Obey’ fashion brand, was commissioned to design the visuals for the 2008 Obama election campaign. Starting prices for his originals begin at $20k and his estimated net worth? Around $15mil.
Other street artists to watch out for are famous London-based Banksy arch-nemesis King Robbo, Toulouse’s Miss Van and her burlesque-inspired mask-wearing females, and Paris urban legend Invader, with his tiny 8-bit videogame mosaic-portraits. Street art is also alive and kicking in Brazil – in 2008, Francisco Rodrigues da Silva, a Sao Paolo native going by the moniker Nunca, was commissioned with five other internationally acclaimed street artists to adorn the river façade of the Tate Modern, as the first major display of street art in London.
If you’d like to know more about investing in street art, or would like to get some advice on how to begin, you can start today by filling in the simple form below.
