Iconic USA 1970s feminist artist Judy Chicago (b. 1939) was ‘rediscovered’ by the market when her career was relit after being selected as a key artist in Pacific Standard Time, the Getty initiative, launched in 2011, documenting and celebrating southern California art from the 1970s onwards. Subsequently Judy toured the UK and was exhibited by London gallery Riflemaker at their Soho premises as well as at Frieze Masters in 2013. Riflemaker is currently ( June 2015) showing work by Chinese artist Wen Wu (b. 1978). Wen has just been selected by the respected key curator Lu Peng for a three-museum exhibition in China (November 2015), and Tot Taylor of Riflemaker expects this event itself to boost her prices by a factor of 5. Riflemaker were also able to double Josephine King’s prices after her painting ‘Uncotrollable’ was selected to appear on a United Nations postage stamp issue in the U.S. The gallery worked with the artist in three solo exhibitions over a five year period during which time prices increased by a factor of 4.
Several significant events have increased the reputation of German artist Andrea Büttner (b. 1972). Somewhat unusually for a practicing artist, she researched a PHD at the Royal College of Art London: the philosophical aspects of this research have informed her art ever since. With the award of the PHD in 2010 Andrea also won the Max Mara Art Prize for Women and was displayed at Whitechapel. In 2012 she was shown at dOCUMENTA (13), which according to the artist herself marked a giant step in her career trajectory. Since 2007 she has been represented in London by Hollybush Gardens Gallery, and Director Lisa anting remarks that the reasons for increases in market value “are multifactorial, based on solo museum shows and general reception in the market, with Andrea’s prices increasing on a consistent upward curve.”
UK artist Chris OFILI (b. 1968) has had several landmark events in his career, including winning the Turner Prize (1998). One of the Turner Prize works sold to US collector for a record £1.8 million. A key recent event which has multiplied his cultural and financial value was his exhibition alongside two £50 million Titian mythologies at the 2012 National Gallery London Metamorphosis exhibition. Victoria Miro, his alpha London Gallery was selling his Ovid series paintings at the 2012 FIAC Art Fair in Paris for £500,000. Prior to the exhibition they had been a fraction of this value.
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