Multiples 34 Long, Cape Town
26 July - 27 August 2005
Multiples, an exhibition of works in limited edition, opens at 34 LONG on 26 July at 18h00. Selected works by established South African artists and some celebrated international artists like Takashi Murakami, Yoshitomo Nara and Marlene Dumas will be on show.
The show will be spectacularly highlighted by a Takashi Murakami serigraph (screen print)
LV Superflat Pink, from a limited edition of only fifty, published by the Tokyo company KaiKai KiKi. Following the lead of the 2004
Universal Symbol of the Brand exhibition held at the Mori Arts Centre in the glittering Roppongi Hills area of Tokyo, 34 LONG will exhibit the print alongside a collection of Louis Vuitton handbags sporting the same design.
Vuitton’s Murakami handbags have been phenomenally successful with global sales reportedly reaching $300 million within the first year and other Murakami lines have been as popular. His cute cartoon characters of brontosaurs, droopy-eared rabbits and smiling aliens have come to epitomize contemporary fun-loving fashions in merchandise and fine art alike.
In Tokyo, galleries and museums exhibit luggage and luggage shops exhibit artwork. And why not? Says Mr Tomio Koyama, Takashi’s Tokyo dealer: " In Japan galleries have no meaning and a Louis Vuitton store is a more powerful place to see something." Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York says of Takashi:
"He is a phenomenon that’s for sure and I think his work embodies some interest that extend far beyond Japan ." 34LONG is privileged to show Takashi’s work in Cape Town.
Work by Yoshitomo Nara, an erstwhile Murakami employee at the KaiKai KiKi Factory, will also be on display for the first time ever in South Africa. Recently Christie’s of London sold a canvas by Nara for ₤84 000. Nara’s work has become sought after by collectors worldwide and his small drawings, executed on the backs of envelopes, are currently valued at around 19 000 US$. At 46 years of age Yoshitomo Nara is considered one of Japan’s most fashionable twentieth-century artists.
Why invest in limited editions ?
Because there are more than one ‘impression’, signed limited edition works are more numerous and more affordable than original oils or watercolours. Takashi Murakami’s paintings and drawings rarely appear on the market and when they do, prices are prohibitive. It is however still quite possible for the average collector to own original artwork by investing in Takashi lithographs or serigraphs. Price depends on edition size, date of printing and dimensions. It has been proven that over time these works increase steadily in value and it simply makes better investment sense to own an exceptional graphic by a well known artist than a huge oil by an unknown artist.
All the artworks on this show are limited edition, including the sculptures. The title of the show, and its content, celebrate the
marvellous fact that as boundaries between art and merchandise fade, fine quality art is accessible to all.
Also see: NUMBERING
OF MULTIPLE ARTWORKS
