[beautifulcrime]

In a room that was more focused on barely hushed chatter amongst some stiff collar n’ brogue types, and the occasional sound of drilling in another room, it was a dog pissing on your shoes kind of a night.

A number of major Banksy’s didn’t hit their guide and didn’t sell and nearly all the others, except a bellow par Tesco Value Tomato Soup canvas and a good Laugh Now original, didn’t reach the bottom end of the guide price.

Smaller Neate’s did well, large one’s hit guide. But this was a pretty mediocre list. Given Jose Parla’s show at Elms two weeks previous was a sellout this auction featured some reliably steady prints, that raised little excitement.

One Artist, Asha Zero had an original, acrylic on board with a guide of £600-800, which raised the odd gasp and quickly raised paddle as it hit £2400. Clearly people in the room were watching other people in the room to see if they knew something about Zero they didn’t. So there either is something about Zero that we don’t know in which case please tell us! or to make a dull night more exciting people played paddle tennis with the first ball to come along.

more here: beautifulcrime.com/auctions/bonhams-urban-art-auction-results/

[hlarmy]

Asha Zero's a much sought-after South African artist - each painting (not collage!) takes a number of weeks to complete which means getting your hands on his work is very difficult. He has a long-waiting list in South Africa and this auction will certainly serve to raise his profile over here - this was never going to go for less than £2k and I'm somewhat surprised it didn't fetch more. Definitely one to watch and an artist you'll hear a lot more of in the next 12 months ...

As for the auction, mixed results - the room lacked the kind of buzz and excitement of the February auction. I found it slightly boring to be honest and thought the auctioneer did very little to liven things up - in my limited experience, she seemed far more interested in getting home than getting a decent price on each lot.