Tuesday, November 11, 2008

The Dr. is in


We first came across DR. LAKRA (Jeronimo Lopez Ramirez) via Francis Upritchard. They share a dealer gallery in London (Kate MacGarry) so perhaps it was Uprichard who prompted DR. LAKRA, a Mexican tattoo artist, to reach for Maori moko. In his work he applies tattoos onto various objects. The image above is from a Phillips De Pury catalogue for their Saturday auction on 25 October that features a few of DR. LAKRA’s drawings in which he applies tattoo patterns onto illustrations taken from old books. Is there a price you can put on intellectual property like moko? Seems so. This work by DR. LAKRA was expected to sell at auction for between $US7000 and 9000.

Image: DR.LAKRA’s Untitled (Don Getulio), 2006