Sylvain Gaillard, Swiss-born Director of Opera Gallery Dubai, is a creative visionary. Not only does he oversee Dubai?s installation of one of the twenty-first century?s most important cultural institutions, but his most recent exhibition, Urban Poetry, is an exercise in the masterful balance between the commercial and intellectual interests of High net-worth modern and contemporary art collectors.
Blek le rat_beggar in paris
Curating a highly exclusive collection, Urban Poetry showcases work from some of the world?s most prolific and influential street artists: Blek le Rat, Os Gemeos, Stink Fish, London Police, and eL Seed, to name a few; more importantly, the exhibition is part of a larger transition in urban contemporary art from graffiti to street art and from street art to asset class; we know that because Banksy?s Girl with Balloon-cum-Love is in the Bin, initially sold for $1.8 million, is now worth an estimated $2.8 million; and while an original Blek le Rat may not go for the same as a Modigliani or Giacometti, what the art industry?s 212% growth since 2008 makes abundantly clear, is that the boundaries around which art, money and value have been traditionally demarcated, are themselves becoming less so. ?For a very long time,? Gaillard tells Upscale Living, ?we?ve always compartmentalized things. That?s contemporary, that?s post-art, that?s impressionist ? the hierarchy of an oil on canvas is inherently better than a gouache on canvas, than a piece on paper. We li...