Mark drew

Life and work

Mark Drew is an Australian artist, born in 1978, who has lived and worked in Tokyo since 2009. Before turning fully to painting and printmaking he co-founded China Heights Gallery in Sydney, where he ran a program of exhibitions for other artists for several years. In 2013 he presented his own first solo show, Deez Nuts, at China Heights, introducing the visual language for which he later became known: panels drawn from Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip, redrawn in a flat, poster like palette, with speech bubbles carrying lines from 1990s rap records rather than the original dialogue. The pairing sets a childhood reference against the music he grew up listening to, and the resulting works read as a kind of visual sampling, the same technique hip hop producers use with recorded sound, applied instead to a comic strip. Since the 2013 debut his paintings and prints have been shown by galleries in New York, London, Los Angeles and Miami, and by China Heights in Sydney and Tokyo.

Paintings, prints and editions

Drew works in two distinct formats that the market treats differently. His paintings are acrylic on canvas, one of a kind, usually square in format and built around a single portrait or scene tied to one rap artist or record. His screen prints are produced in signed, hand numbered editions, for example an edition of one hundred for the print Street Knowledge, and they circulate at a lower price point than the unique paintings because more than one collector can own an impression from the same edition. LLB Auction has sold two lots by the artist, both consistent with the smaller scale editioned side of his output that tends to appear at auction outside his primary gallery representation.

What a specialist examines

Before a Mark Drew work is catalogued a specialist checks the medium first, since the acrylic paintings and the screen prints sell in different ranges and should never be priced as if interchangeable. On a print the specialist looks for the pencil signature and the edition number in the lower margin, and compares the paper and ink against the run described by the gallery that issued it. On a painting the specialist looks for the signature and inscription on the reverse of the canvas, which on his work often carries the title, the year and a personal tag alongside the signature. Provenance back to the gallery of first sale, whether China Heights, Spoke Art or Harman Projects, strengthens a lot, as does any exhibition history that can be matched to a dated show. Condition points typical of screen prints, such as light staining or a soft corner from handling, and typical of acrylic on canvas, such as surface cracking or old restretching, are recorded before an estimate is set. There is no dedicated authentication body for this contemporary artist; the galleries and dealers listed under Career are the reference point for questions of authorship.

Market position

Drew's work has a documented public auction market at the houses named under Career. At Phillips in New York, the acrylic painting With or Without the Airplay sold for 2,286 US dollars in a twenty twenty four online sale of twentieth century and contemporary art. That result sits within the range typically seen for his single canvas paintings at auction, with prints trading below that level and larger or more sought after canvases trading above it.

Preparing a valuation request

A seller preparing to consign a Mark Drew work should gather the original invoice or any gallery paperwork from the point of purchase, together with clear photographs of the front of the work and, for a painting, the full reverse of the canvas showing any inscription. For a print, a photograph of the signature and the edition number in the margin is needed. The exact medium, whether acrylic on canvas or screen print, and the precise dimensions should be recorded, along with the edition number if the work is a print. A short condition report noting any staining, restretching or repair, and any record of where and when the work was exhibited or previously offered for sale, completes the file a specialist needs to prepare an estimate.