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n one energetic hour, 9 out of 23 lots set records for an artist’s work at auction: Adrian Ghenie’s Degenerate Art ($9.3 million), Matthew Wong’s The Night Watcher ($5.9 million), Avery Singer’s Happening ($5.3 million), Christina Quarles’s Night Fell Upon Us Up On Us ($4.5 million), Jennifer Packer’s Fire Next Time ($2.3 million), Simone Leigh’s Birmingham ($2.2 million), Anna Weyant’s Falling Woman ($1.6 million), Lucy Ball’s Special Guest ($907K, in her auction debut), and Virgil Abhloh’s Unique “Efflorescence” Desk ($151K for a dedicated work of art).
Across a $72.9 million auction, work by women artists achieved $28 million (nearly double the $10.3–14.4 million estimate) and work by artists of color realized $35.1 million (above the $15.9–22.9 estimate) or nearly half of the auction’s total sale value.
The Now Evening Auction focusses on the art of our time, offering the most exciting, cutting-edge works on the market and providing a masterpiece context for well-established and newly canonized artists. From Julie Mehretu to Christina Quarles, the auction also provides heightened visibility and a relevant art historical context for younger artists, establishing the masters of today and tomorrow.
The May 2022 iteration of The Now Evening Auction combines the critically acclaimed masterpieces by artists such as Kerry James Marshall and Simone Leigh with the best of newly emerging artists such as Anna Weyant and Lucy Bull. Paintings by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Jennifer Packer, and Adrien Ghenie boldly challenge the traditions of figurative portraiture, while those by Avery Singer, Banksy and Lauren Quin offer radically inventive ways of engaging with the medium. Seen together, the auction comprises works that examine the prevailing themes of contemporary society including race, geography, technology, and gender, forming a dynamic portrait of the varied trends that constitute the art and culture of our time.
