John 'Crash' Matos

The art market is notoriously resilient, often expanding in the face of significant economic and social challenges. However, 2020 provided a particular set of obstacles...

As in many creative endeavours, it takes a true lover of art to spot an emerging talent. Eventually, the market lets prospective buyers know who...

These are difficult and challenging times, with many people around the world seeing significant changes to their circumstances. There is no doubt that the current health crisis will disrupt lives, jobs, quality of life and the economy for many years to come. It is difficult to underplay the changes that are imminent. Whilst we remain rightly focused on our health and that of those we love and care for - we wanted to look forward in order to understand what effect coronavirus may have on our industry.

I turned to the most objective data available: auction prices. As publicly-reported sales between knowledgeable and willing buyers and sellers, they are not unlike stock trades. I then developed the equivalent of a Dow Jones Industrial Average for art. As the Dow includes blue chip companies, this art index needed equivalently blue chip artists. To represent Modern art, I chose Picasso; for Contemporary, Warhol. For 21st C. artists, I needed to create a basket including Banksy, Yayoi Kusama, KAWS, and Damien Hirst.

Street art and politics are closely intertwined, whether that be in terms of inspiration, identity or institution. In its heyday, the New York graffiti scene was subversive; an open call to arms for all those who felt marginalised, unheard and ignored.

Contemporary art sales are signalling a new period of prosperity. With figures escalating, the market is generally accepted to have one of the most rewarding benefits from an investment standpoint.

2018 was a bumper year for the contemporary art market, showing significant growth quarter on quarter from May 2017. Most significantly, it marked the first fiscal year in which the market's main indicators were all positive: the global auction turnover grew by around 20%, the rate of unsold art remained steady at 39%, the volume of total transactions grew by 17% and the price index of contemporary art grew by 18%.

In the short time since their launch in 2017, Distassi Art have carved themselves an impressive niche in London’s thriving commercial art market.