Welcome Spring!
It has been a rainy winter season, but the sun is shining again! As always, we want to thank you for your continued support and partnership.

In this newsletter we recap news of the art market, highlight upcoming events, exhibitions and auctions to consider, and interview a San Francisco based artist, Alicia Escott.

We are here to provide guidance and assistance as you make updates to your estate plan or insurance coverage or just need an art-related resource. We have the tools and expertise to help. Contact us for guidance and referrals.
Art Market News: Returning to the Gallery
Global Recap of the Art Market:

As we slowly move out of the pandemic, the art market as a whole is returning to in-person events, auctions and gallery exhibitions and the face to face time has had some positive impacts:
  • Global art sales have increased by 3% year-on-year and are now higher than pre-pandemic levels
  • After a substantial downturn in sales during 2020, the U.S. art market has made one of the most robust recoveries of all major markets, with its highest growth rate to date in 2022
  • With more frequent live and in person events, dealers and auction houses reported a fall in online-only sales, but the rate is still currently 85% higher than in 2019
Andy Warhol
Shot Sage Blue Marilyn, 1987
Acrylic and silkscreen ink on linen
Photo © christies.com
from the Collection of Thomas and Doris
  • Despite difficult operation costs for brick and mortar art trade business during the pandemic, sales recovered very quickly in 2021, driven by the expanse of digital sales and strong sales at the highest end of the market due to increased spending power of elite collectors, all bringing the art market to higher levels than before
  • The U.S. has retained its position as the largest market in the world, with 45% of global market sales happening in the States
Global Auction Market Trends:

  • Sales of works valued at over $10 million increased by 12% in the past year, despite a low number of lots sold, showing high performance at the top end
  • Online bidding has allowed access to more bidders across more places and backgrounds and accounted for up to 91% of bids at Sotheby’s and 75% of bids at Christies in 2022
  • Contemporary and Post-War artwork is the largest section of the fine art market, accounting for 54% of the global value of fine art auction sales
  • All top 50 lots in the auction market were sold in the U.S. and all at prices above $30 million, leading to a record past year for the American auction market, after a significant decline in 2020; 41 of those 50 lots were sales that took place in New York
  • The second highest sale ever recorded at auction occurred in May of 2022 at Christie’s, New York. This sale broke a record for the artist, Andy Warhol, with his work Shot Sage Blue Marilyn (1964), selling for $195 million. The highest ever auction sale was a work by Leonardo Da Vinci, Salvator Mundi (circa 1499-1510), which sold in 2017 for $450 million
Looking Forward:

It feels positive to say that with more in-person events and exhibitions, the online sector of the art market has slightly dwindled since the middle of 2020, but is still stronger than it was pre-pandemic. This has created a more level playing field among collectors, allowing access to more artwork for more people, and this trend looks like it will continue.

Businesses and collectors alike were able to take time during the pandemic to look closely at what they value, for both their time and their funds. This has showed all of us, more broadly, just how social the art world truly is and how much we rely on spending time face to face for building contacts, long-term relationships, friendships, and trust.

All above information from The Art Market 2023; a Report by Art Basel and USB
Local Artist Highlight: Alicia Escott
Alicia Escott, Metabolic Rifts and Domestic Interiors: Memory of Touch, Learning How to Hand Pollinate, 2021

Between Nature and Humanity
Alicia Escott is a San Francisco based, interdisciplinary artist with a robust exhibition history and an intricate and highly thoughtful approach to her/their work.

Escott focuses their work on “undoing the construct of ‘nature’ as a thing separate from us and our world”, or the idea that we as humans are apart and away from nature. She further works to highlight the fact that things we view as non-natural, like plastics, are still of the natural world and therefore, a part of us as well. Her work is also informed by how we feel and process emotion and it gives physical space to allow the viewer to realize that they are not alone, but a part of a vast community of others with the same experiences, the same emotions. Escott’s work emphasizes community through these emotions or through the connection with non-human entities like insects, animals and inanimate materials.  
One series of works that connect us to the non-human world is titled Metabolic Rifts and Domestic Interiors, (shown above and below) a time-based piece where Escott takes discarded carpet packaging and repurposes this material to hold new life. They add compost and wildflower seeds to the sleeve and allow the plants to create their own natural forms. This series is both for us to view and for the local pollinators to attend as it lives not only in the white cube but outdoors as well. The final version of the work is a video piece where her hand, which began the project, comes back into the work when the flowers have bloomed and then at the very end, the flowers become compost once more, closing the circle for the work and the life it holds.

Escott works both individually and collaboratively, and one collaboration, The Bureau of Linguistical Reality, gives us words to articulate what was previously indescribable. This collaboration, with artist Heidi Quante, allows international viewers to collaborate to create terms for new experiences and emotions that are now common to us all. This includes new words for feelings around rapid climate change, extinction of species, or loss of human connection. Working together to create more language to describe our reality in turn gives us all a better sense of community and stronger lines of connection. You can add your own word here. 

Escott’s work is currently on view at Mercury 20 Gallery in Oakland and at Bass and Reiner in San Francisco. You can find her website here and be sure to keep an eye out for her upcoming installations in San Francisco - news soon to be announced!
Alicia Escott, Metabolic Rifts and Domestic Interiors, 2019
Events and Exhibitions in the Bay Area and Beyond
San Franciso Art Market
Fort Mason: Thursday April 20 -Sunday April 23

Don't miss the Bay Area's longest running art fair, happening this month!
The event includes artwork from 85 top galleries around the world, local food and craft cocktails and robust programing from the Art Director, Nato Thompson. This is a once a year event that is not to be missed!

Kehinde Wiley: An Archaeology of Silence
De Young Museum of Art: Now - October 15, 2023

With a new body of sculptures and paintings, this expansive exhibition brings forward the deafening silence that continues to surround systemic racism and violence against Black people. The senseless deaths which occur around the world are transformed by Wiley’s hand into stunning icons of powerful resistance, allowing the viewer to understand and revere these fallen figures as heroes, martyrs and saints, offering us a powerful meditation on the continuation of colonialism, hatred and racism.
Kehinde Wiley, The Death of Hyacinth
(Ndey Buri Mboup), 2022
Ansel Adams, The Golden Gate Before the
Golden Gate Bridge, 1932
Ansel Adams in Our Time
De Young Museum of Art: Now - July 23, 2023

This exhibition displays over 100 photographs by famed photographer Ansel Adams, featuring stunning vistas of California, both views well known to us and images that are lesser known. The show reminds visitors of the breadth of Adam's works and is categorized into seven sections that follow his artistic development though time.


2022 SECA Art Award Exhibition
SFMOMA: Now - May 29, 2023

The SECA Art Award celebrates Bay Area artists who shine in their field and the award from 2022 culminates in this special exhibition. Visit the show to see installations in five separate rooms by the five awarded artists, allowing the viewer to experience artwork that is as contemporary as it gets.
Maria A. Guzmán Capron, Respira Hondo, 2022 (installation view)
Portrait of Hung Liu, OMCA
Remembering Artist Hung Liu
Oakland Museum of California Art: Ongoing

This exhibition honors the life, legacy and achievements of the talented Oakland artist, Hung Liu. In a new special gallery you can contemplate and appreciate the late artist's works and reflect on her contributions to inclusion in the Bay Area.

You can also plan your visit for Friday night when the OMCA hosts Fridays Nights with Off the Grid, a free community event every Friday with live music, family actives, food trucks and late night access to the museum! The event is 5-9 pm each week.
Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue
The Getty Center: Now – July 9, 2023

These two photographers met in Harlem in 1976 and for more than 45 years have maintained a friendship and artistic dialogue, yet this exhibition pairs their work together for the first time. Both artists address class, race, representation and systems of power through the daily realties of Black Americans, while also speaking to the broader human condition.   
Carrie Mae Weems, The edge of Time -
Ancient Rome, 2006
Sonya Rapoport, Anasazi Series II, 1977 (detail)
Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952 - 1982
LA County Museum of Art:
Now – July 2, 2023

An international and interdisciplinary exhibition exploring the art in the rise of computer technology. The show examines what we now term digital art and features creators of many backgrounds, including writers, film makers, visual artists, choreographers and musicians all working with the ideas around a new computerized world at the time.
Upcoming Auctions
Prints and Multiples
Christie's, New York, live and online
April 20, 2023

Christie’s presents a surprising line up of prints by masters of 19th century and contemporary art. Artists include Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Andy Warhol, Richard Diebenkorn and Wayne Thiebaud, just to name a few.
Pierre Soulages, Eau-forte XX, 1972
Max Leiberman, Landschaft (Noordwijk aan Zee), circa 1910
Impressionist and Modern Art
Bonham's, London, live and online
April 20, 2023

An auction in London featuring unique works by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Georges Rouault, Eugène Boudin, Max Lieberman and Giorgio de Chirico, among other well known artists.
Southern Exposure's Annual Art Auction
San Francisco: April 29, 2023

Don't miss a chance to support a local business and local artists at Southern Exposure's Annual Art Auction! Over 130 works are currently on view at the gallery space and the live and silent auctions will take place soon, during an event featuring live music and local eats to showcase work by some of the Bay Area's best artists. Support a good cause and take home some local artwork!