Phillips Presents What Now?: Online Auction

Ayako Rokkaku
Untitled AR19-033, 2019

acrylic on canvas, 100.4 x 100 cm.

Estimate: HK$400,000-600,000/ US$ 50,000-75,000 
 

HONG KONG – 18 JANUARY 2023 – Phillips is pleased to present What Now?: Online Auction from 2-9 February, offering a selection of  original artworks and editions by popular artists in the current contemporary art market. Tapping into current collecting trends, highlight works to feature in the online auction include exquisite works by Ayako Rokkaku, Chiharu Shiota, Joan Cornella, Etsu Egami, Edgar Plans, Cristina BanBan, Javier Calleja and Jade Kim.

Untitled AR19-033 presented in the sale beautifully emblematic of Ayako Rokkaku’s cartoon-like painterly aesthetic with her signature rainbow colour palette. Dancing across large canvases, Rokkaku smears dazzling swirls of colour directly with her bare hands and fingertips, capturing the speed and verve in which she creates. Evoking carefree mark-making often seen in children’s drawings, Rokkaku’s painterly surfaces recall elements of impressionism in its thick layers of impasto.

 

Jade Kim is a South Korean visual artist working in the medium of painting and sculpture. Having worked in the fields of exhibition curation and product planning for nearly a decade, Kim eventually chose to pursue his passion and became an artist. Depicted in the present lot, Flower Aura, is Kim’s signature character ‘Min’ drawn on inspiration from his endearment for his wife. With big, wide eyes, and child-like appearance, Min is often depicted amidst mesmerizing, otherworldly background of nature or starry night sky, appearing sometimes melancholic and concerning, at other times serene and etheric.

 

What Now?: Online Auction also brings together a fantastic selection of works by some of the most sought-after Spanish artists such as Cristina BanBan, Javiver Calleja, Joan Cornella, and Edgar Plans. Lively and bodacious, the exaggerated figures that populate Cristina BanBan’s portraits are firmly centred on the female form, as depicted in the present work, Untitled. Rendered in fleshy hues, her protagonists fill her canvases with a fluidity that gives shape to their bodies without restraint. Hailing from Málaga, Spain, Javier Calleja captivates the hearts and souls of millions across the globe with his adorable, wide-eyed characters. Round, rosy cheeks and saccharine-sweet stares populate the artist’s celebrated oeuvre, a tribute to childhood wonderment that evokes nostalgia for simpler days. 

 

The bidding opens on 2 February at 9pm HKT and will begin closing on 9 February at 6pm HKT.

 

 

ABOUT PHILLIPS

Phillips is a leading global platform for buying and selling 20th and 21st century art and design. With dedicated expertise in the areas of 20th Century and Contemporary Art, Design, Photographs, Editions, Watches, and Jewelry, Phillips offers professional services and advice on all aspects of collecting. Auctions and exhibitions are held at salerooms in New York, London, Geneva, and Hong Kong, while clients are further served through representative offices based throughout Europe, the United States and Asia. Phillips also offers an online auction platform accessible anywhere in the world.  In addition to providing selling and buying opportunities through auction, Phillips brokers private sales and offers assistance with appraisals, valuations, and other financial services. Visit www.phillips.com for further information.

*Estimates do not include buyer’s premium; prices achieved include the hammer price plus buyer’s premium.

 

PRESS CONTACTS:            

HONG KONG – Ingrid Hsu, Public Relations & Communications Director, Asia  Ingridhsu@phillips.com  +852 2318 2043
HONG KONG – Jiayi Zhang, Public Relations Coordinator                                 Jiayizhang@phillips.com  +852 2318 2080

 

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