Adam Handler

2021 will be an exciting year for the art world, with the potential return of physical exhibitions, the reopening of galleries and the ability for...

2020 was full of challenges, which we all faced head on. The high hopes of January were quickly brushed aside by the realities of March,...

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...

Adam Handler, born in Queens - NY, creates dynamic works that express naive chaos through themes of loneliness, imagination, solitude and connection. Handler studied life drawing in Italy and has shown works at exhibitions all around the world, from New York to Seoul. As Adam describes, ​“when these styles of works that you see were conceived I specifically turned off my mind and allowed only emotion, actions and spirit to guide the works.” ​This is exemplified in the bold, bright strokes that Handler employs.

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.

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%.