As market players prepared for the onslaught of London sales this month, many set out to research artists on the rise. And while they can research auction prices on the Artnet Price Database, we can tell you what they’re looking at. The search queries aren’t free, which means those running them have skin in the game, and changing rankings can offer a snapshot of business interests and activity in particular artists, especially on the secondary market.

Below, we bring you the list of the top-searched artists on the Artnet Price Database in February 2022. (Those who had the same number of searches are listed as tied.)

​​Before we get into that, however, here is a selection of artists on the rise who haven’t cracked the most-searched list yet, but, judging from the spikes in searches for their names, might soon. Some of these figures are well known in their home countries, but are just beginning to develop an international profile; others may be the flavor of the week for profit-hungry speculators. Either way, their work is getting serious attention—and you’d probably be wise to keep an eye on where their markets are headed.

Notable Fast-Risers

Rafa Macarrón (b. 1982)

Rafa Macarrón, Rutina Fluor (diptych) (2019). Photo: Sotheby’s.

Bright colors, wingding-like characters, and an otherworldly vibe is what you can expect from Spanish artist Rafa Macarrón’s paintings. His mixed media works have been generating serious momentum at auction—though the rush to cash in may risk flooding the market already. After a 2019 diptych—his third work ever to hit the block—fetched 4.3 million HKD ($550,310) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October (estimate: 500,000–700,000 HKD), no fewer than five Macarrón paintings are coming up for sale this month. So far, two have exceeded their high estimates and one came in well under expectations. Macarrón’s work is in the collections of many Spanish institutions, including CAC Málaga and Museo DA2 in Salamanca. Although he remains lesser known in the U.S., at least one enterprising gallery has picked up on the buzz. The artist had a two-part solo show with Nino Mier Gallery in Los Angeles earlier this year. Macarrón’s searches spiked from just two in February 2021 to 73 last month.

Amani Lewis (b. 1994)

Amani Lewis, Negroes in the Trees #3 (2019). Image courtesy the artist and Destinee Ross-Sutton 2020.

Less than six years out of art school, Amani Lewis has gained a long list of admirers for portraits that use digital imaging, photo manipulation, collage, and textile to create vivid images of their community. In a trajectory that was once unheard-of and is now commonplace, Lewis’s breakout auction debut took place in Hong Kong, at a Sotheby’s day sale almost a year ago. The artist’s layered digital collage of a figure on the phone almost quadrupled its high estimate of 150,000 HKD ($19,327) to bring in 630,000 HKD ($81,174). Since then, two more of Lewis’s works have hit the block at steadily climbing estimates, which were both shattered by their final prices. The artist, based between Miami and Baltimore, is represented by Salon 94. Lewis drew zero searches in February 2021, but what a difference a year makes: the artist generated 20 last month. 

Cristina BanBan (b. 1987)

Cristina BanBan, Lovers in the Bath (2018). Photo: Phillips.

The Spanish artist, who is represented by Perrotin, creates large-scale paintings of female figures that look as if early Picasso and prime Jenny Saville had a millennial baby. The Brooklyn-based BanBan, who has a show at Perrotin Paris later this year, started making waves on the auction circuit in the second half of 2021. Her auction record, for a luscious painting of a man and woman in the bath, sold for £60,480 at Phillips London’s New Now sale in December, shattering its £10,000-to-£15,000 estimate. BanBan did not make a ripple in the Artnet Price Database in February 2021, but has drawn a combined 30 searches over the past two months. 

Roby Dwi Antonio (b. 1990)

Roby Dwi Antono, Goddess Pramani (2015). Courtesy of Christie’s Images Ltd. 2022.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that in today’s bonkers art market, one cannot go more than three or four months without encountering a new artist who makes cartoonish, big-eyed figures that, thanks in large part to demand from Asia, sell for at least six figures. Next up is the Malaysian artist Roby Dwi Antonio, who blends science fiction, fantasy, and Renaissance-inspired imagery to create paintings that some buyers can’t get enough of. His most popular works are complex Surrealist scenes like Miram Temaram (2013), which shot past its 250,000 HKD ($32,054) high estimate to fetch 2.4 million HKD ($306,954) at Phillips’s joint sale with Poly in Hong Kong in November. Antonio had one of the largest jumps in database searches we’ve seen, with just one in February 2021 giving way to 76 in January 2022 and 42 last month. 

Yvonne Canu (1921–2007)

Yvonne Canu, Collioure (c. 1987). Photo: Christie’s Images Ltd.

Not every hot thing has to be young. OK, it’s probably a stretch to call the work of Yvonne Canu, a French post-Impressionist painter, hot. But she did pull in a combined 40 searches in the past two months, up considerably from zero in February 2021. And at a time when the art world and market is eager to drum up overlooked or excluded talent from the past, Canu’s pointilist paintings seem to be getting some attention. Unusually for a 20th-century artist so little known, two of her top 10 auction prices have been set since 2020. In July, a pleasant boat scene fetched £38,750 ($53,389) at a Christie’s London Impressionist day sale. The high estimate was £8,000. That’s the kind of performance usually reserved these days for artists who are barely old enough to rent a car. 

300 Most-Searched Artists in the Artnet Price Database, February 2022