Christie’s will stage an exhibition of highlights from upcoming New York gross sales for the primary time in Austin, Texas, one of many fastest-growing cities in america in a transfer to draw new millennial purchasers to the 257-year-old public sale home.
Submit-war, up to date and Latin American artwork public sale highlights shall be on view in a pop-up at The Loren Lodge in downtown Austin for the three-day occasion, from 12 September till 14 September.
Christie’s has curated a various vary of labor to attraction to potential consumers in several levels of their accumulating journey, based on Julian Ehrlich, the top of Christie’s post-war to current sale. Christie’s had beforehand finished outreach in Dallas and Houston, Texas’ two most-established artwork markets, Ehrlich says, however the pop-up in Austin would be the first programming within the metropolis by the public sale home.
King (2021) by Amoako Boafo Courtesy Christie’s
Among the many works on show shall be an untitled 2021 canvas by Rick Lowe, the Houston-based artist whose Challenge Row Homes revitalised dozens of properties in Houston’s Third Ward into areas for artists and exhibitions. (In 2021, Lowe joined the roster of mega-gallery Gagosian.) The portray shall be Lowe’s first to ever seem at public sale, and shall be a part of Christie’s New York post-war to current sale this autumn. Works by Lynne Drexler, Amoako Boafo and Katherine Bradford can even be on view on the Austin pop-up, together with a Keith Haring print and sculpture by Fernando Botero.
The Austin outreach occasion is a component of a bigger technique to have interaction with youthful consumers, based on Bonnie Brennan, Christie’s president for the Americas. Within the first half of 2023, about 30% of Christie’s clients have been new purchasers, and about 39% of these have been millennials or youthful, she mentioned.
“We have seen a lot give attention to Austin, and we actually assume that there is a large alternative there to make connections,” Brennan says. “We thought this could be an ideal experiment, to take some core market materials there and demystify us in a option to individuals who perhaps have not engaged with us earlier than.”
Inexperienced Round (1962) by Lynne Drexler Courtesy Christie’s
Austin and the encompassing Central Texas space have been among the many fastest-growing elements of the nation for years, however the Covid-19 pandemic ushered in a brand new wave of transplants to the area as extra Individuals started to work remotely. Town noticed the biggest internet achieve of distant staff of any main US metropolis between 2020 and 2021, with 28,000 new residents working from residence, based on a New York Instances evaluation of US Census knowledge.
“There was such an explosion throughout the pandemic of individuals relocating to Texas, and a youthful demographic in Austin particularly. We actually started to speak significantly about growing programming to serve that neighborhood,” Brennan says.
Ehrlich provides, “There are extra collectors there as a result of so many individuals have moved there, however there’s already a wealthy tradition there, a cultural context.”
Austin has lengthy been related to creativity and counterculture, with a flourishing stay music scene and occasions just like the South by Southwest competition. Town’s expertise sector has seen explosive development lately—thanks partially to state tax incentives which have lured California firms to Texas—together with places of work of the world’s largest tech corporations like Apple, Meta, Google, Microsoft and Amazon. The inflow of transplants has contributed to hovering rental costs and dwelling prices, which has pushed many musicians and artists to relocate to smaller cities simply outdoors of town.
