10 In-Demand Works on Artsy This Week: July 15, 2021

In this weekly series, Artsy’s Curatorial and Editorial teams offer a look at the artworks that are currently gaining traction among collectors on Artsy. Looking at our internal data, we share a selection of works that Artsy members are engaging with through inquiries, page views, and saves, plus promising lots in current auctions. The following pieces are culled from recent online auctions and art fairs hosted on Artsy, as well as exhibitions and works added by our gallery partners.

This radiant portrait by Adjei Tawiah is featured in this year’s ARTNOIR benefit auction, “From: Friends To: Friends.” The early-career Ghanaian artist, who shows with Gallery 1957, uses sponge to clothe the subjects in his works, resulting in colorful and textured mixed-media portraits. Tawiah’s technique, which he refers to as “sponge material,” was inspired by his experience of watching his mother’s body being cleansed in a mortuary. ARTNOIR’s 2021 benefit auction, hosted exclusively on Artsy, features a selection of works by over a dozen rising contemporary artists of color. Proceeds from the sale will provide funding for the nonprofit’s newly launched Artistic Pathways Scholarship Fund, which will support MFA students at CUNY and SUNY schools throughout New York City and State.

At this year’s LongHouse Reserve benefit auction, this double-sided painting by the interdisciplinary artist Laurie Anderson is available with a starting bid of $3,000. On one side, the work’s title is surrounded by red, yellow, and black scrawlings, and on the reverse, an airplane pointing downward takes center stage as figures float helplessly in a sky of red and blue. Anderson, a pioneering artist, musician, and director, is renowned for her use of cutting-edge technologies to create politically charged visual, sound, and performance works.

After Roby Dwi Antono’s record-breaking sale on Artsy this past June as part of the “Art Keeps Nonprofits Going IV” benefit auction, interest in the Indonesian artist’s figures, paintings, and drawings has continued to build. Asteria Vinyl, uploaded by Miami’s Marcel Katz Art in early July, has received an influx of inquiries. This limited-edition half-animal, half-human figurine highlights Antono’s style of fusing surrealistic imagery with ancient Greek mythology.

Browse available works by Roby Dwi Antono.

The market for Tomokazu Matsuyama’s paintings is on an upward trend since the artist’s record was broken this past May, when a 2011 triptych sold for HK$3.25 million (US$418,541) at auction. Minimal Celestine builds on the Japanese-born, Brooklyn-based artist’s practice of creating vibrant, fantastical worlds that reflect on his cross-cultural identity. After attracting a significant amount of attention, this 2021 canvas sold shortly after being uploaded to Artsy by Kavi Gupta in early July. The painting is one of two new works by Matsuyama currently being exhibited in the Chicago gallery’s group show “Realms of Refuge.”

This work by indigenous Chamorro artist Gisela McDaniel saw steady demand since it was uploaded to Artsy by London gallery Pilar Corrias in mid-June, before it recently sold. Drawn from personal experience, the figurative painting reflects McDaniel’s pursuits to honor female-identifying and nonbinary surviors of sexual assualt who are indigenous and/or people of color. True to McDaniel’s painting practice broadly, the work is accompanied by an audio recording of an interview the artist had with her subject, preserving the individual’s story. McDaniel was featured in the July edition of Artsy Editorial’s series “5 Artists on Our Radar.”

Los Angeles–based artist Brian Lotti often works en plein air to depict the fleeting moments of his surroundings. This painting is a prime example of that intuitive act. The piece was uploaded in early June by Simchowitz Gallery in L.A. and has since been met with an influx of inquiries. With Night Laps, the artist employs thick brushstrokes and a rich color palette to elicit a visceral feeling of nostalgia for a peaceful moment alone in a bustling city.

This piece is included in Khari Turner’s first New York solo exhibition, “Breathing Water to Air,” currently on view at Ross-Sutton Gallery. The mixed-media canvas by the Milwaukee-born, New York–based artist has received several inquiries since it was uploaded to Artsy in early July. Turner created this new body of work, in which he introduces water and wood into his pieces, this past spring. The works’ material elements—sourced from locations that are meaningful to Turner, like the Senegal Coast, Milwaukee River, Lower Manhattan docks, Lake Michigan, and the Pacific Ocean—serve to visually connect the viewer with nature. Next May, Turner is scheduled to open his first solo museum show at the Museum of Wisconsin Art, which will feature a new body of work.

This piece, one of Lee Bae’s well-known charcoal compositions, received a significant number of inquiries this past week after it was uploaded to Artsy by Dep Art Gallery. After relocating to Paris in the late 1980s, the Korean modernist began using wooden charcoal as a medium when he became dissatisfied with the traditional slender sticks often used in painting. The charcoal employed on this large-scale canvas reminded Lee of the medium’s powerful use as a purifying agent in Korea. The medium also helped him recognize the recurring metaphor of life and death in many of his monochromatic works.

In Heritage’s “Prints & Multiples” auction, this 2019 screenprint by Lisa Brice has already met its low estimate of $5,000 with six bids, well ahead of the sale’s close on July 21st. The editioned work features a silhouette of an enigmatic woman rendered in a vibrant blue hue that the South African artist often employs. This untitled print is typical of Brice’s practice, in which she creates depictions of the female figure that unsettle the sexist tropes surrounding women in art history.

With four bids, this aluminum cutout by Alex Katz has reached its reserve of $15,000 in the Artsy x Capsule Auctions sale “Post-War & Contemporary Art under $20,000,” which closes on July 22nd. Part of an edition of 60, this brightly colored piece is an excellent opportunity to collect a work by the celebrated Pop artist. Other versions of this freestanding sculpture have fetched as much as $20,000 at auction, suggesting that collectors can expect the demand for this work to continue.