Javier Calleja
Small figures with enormous eyes, and a sentence written somewhere in the picture.
Javier Calleja was born in Malaga in 1971 and studied fine art there and in Madrid. He worked for years in installation and drawing before arriving at the motif that made his name internationally in the late 2010s: a child-like figure, rendered simply, with eyes far too large for the head, usually set against a plain ground and accompanied by a short phrase lettered in English somewhere on the sheet or canvas. The tone is deliberately unstable, funny and slightly desolate at once. His market grew first and fastest in Japan and Hong Kong, and he has produced sculpture, ceramics and vinyl figures alongside the paintings.
The output divides sharply. The paintings and unique works on paper are the top of the market and are scarce relative to demand. Below them sit a large number of editions: prints, ceramic pieces, resin and vinyl figures, and collaborative product, often released in editions of several hundred through Japanese and Korean publishers. Original box, certificate and any accompanying accessories are part of the value of the figures and their absence is felt sharply. Counterfeits of the vinyl editions circulate, so provenance from the original release matters.
If you own a work by Javier Calleja
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Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.