Monday, August 20, 2007

Strictly one per customer


Buying contemporary art has never been so easy and, looking at a range of artist editions available on dealer gallery web sites, so well priced. Now there are a number of dealer galleries that offer multiples or editions created by their artists that are available to view and purchase online. The ones mentioned here are just a selection. There are more dealers with editions available and more artists multiples are available in the galleries and not online.

Sue Crockford has 24 editions ranging from Billy Apple’s framed print Billy Apple TM at just under $5000, John Reynolds’s multiple painting The words are clouds for what feels like a snip $950. John, like some other artists, seems happy to edition works that are in fact unique. This often makes them a bargain. Crockford’s lowest priced item, and our personal pick, is Daniel Malone’s Untitled (China Brick) 2003 at $300.

At Gow Langsford you can choose from 10 editions on their web site ranging in price from the John Leech set at $11,250.00 to a screen print by Sara Hughes, Love Letter 2006 at $950. Tucked among the Gow Langsford selection are three classic seventies Max Gimblett prints at $950. Bargain. Gow Langsford also offer some great international artists at edition prices. We have already mentioned Koons’s Yellow Flower and the print edition in their recent catalogue which includes a small Koons sculpture.

Michael Lett doesn’t have editions on his web site but has recently published an bath towel edition by Simon Denny. The new Michael Parekowhai book, published by Michael Lett Publishing, is also available in a special edition that includes an incredible Parekowhai photograph. Lett sometimes has available multiples by Martin Creed. And Starkwhite did a pretty funny multiple of Dane Mitchell’s that is probably still available. It’s a small picpac art crate that broadcast a self-help tape for art galleries.

The Artspace editions now number 19 with a few of them sold out. Prices range from Ann Veronica Janssens Untitled photograph at $3,800 to what must be the bargain of the year, an edition of 5 original works by Eve Armstrong at $350 each. (Try not to get trampled in the rush). And for everyone who says art is too expensive, there is a Rohan Wealleans edition of six original works Paint segments 2004 at $3 per gram. Our pick from Artspace is another set of unique works in an edition of four smartly titled Editions of one, 2006 by Fiona Connor at $500.

Images: Clockwise from top left. Martin Creed, Work No. 88: A sheet of A4 paper crumpled into a ball, Fiona Connor Editions of one, 2006, Daniel Malone’s Untitled (China Brick) and Max Gimblett The New Zealand Suite: Fu, 1979