The summer doldrums have arrived—but not for the art market. Last month, London hosted its Modern and contemporary art summer sales, German houses held their biannual auctions, and Phillips held its marquee contemporary art evening event in New York. All that activity means that searches on Artnet’s Price Database have yet to hit the beach.  

The 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 June 2021. (Those who had the same number of searches are listed as being tied.) 

Before we get to that, however, here is a selection of artists on the rise who, if they haven’t cracked the top 300 yet, are poised to do so soon. Formally, these artists have relatively little in common with one another—but they share growing demand in Asia, and ascendant price points. 

Notable Fast-Risers

Javier Calleja (b. 1971)

Javier Calleja, What I Mean (2017). Courtesy of Christie’s Images, Ltd.

If you haven’t heard of Javier Calleja, you are probably not regularly hanging out in Hong Kong salesrooms. The Spanish artist may not be particularly well known in the U.S., but he has developed a rabid fandom among a certain set of young, moneyed Asian collectors. His paintings of big-eyed young people—which look like a cross between Yoshitomo Nara and Margaret Keane—broke the $1 million mark at auction for the first time this year. Waiting for a while (2019) fetched $1.1 million at Christie’s in March, more than double its high estimate. Calleja’s ascent has been rapid on the database side, too: last June, he drew 45 searches in the PDB; last month, that number rose to 162. 

Hernan Bas (b. 1978)

Hernan Bas, Downhill at Dusk (The Runaway) (2008). Image courtesy Phillips.

The Miami-born, Detroit-based artist, whose inspirations range from Goth culture to Oscar Wilde, has a dedicated collector base on the primary market through his galleries, including Lehmann Maupin and Victoria Miro. Within the past year or two, activity on the secondary market has also begun to pick up steam. The results are clear both from his auction prices (his top result, a triple-estimate $352,800, was set at Phillips in March) and his Artnet Price Database search history. The number of queries almost doubled between June 2020 (44) and June 2021 (87).

Joel Mesler (b. 1974)

Joel Mesler, New York, New York (2021). Courtesy of Christie’s Images, Ltd.

Until recently, Joel Mesler was best known as an art dealer (he was an early champion of artists including Henry Taylor and Loie Hollowell). Now, however, he is a veritable art star. His paintings of flora overlaid with upbeat mantras (“Fingers Crossed,” “One Day at a Time”) have become hot commodities, especially among collectors in Asia. (He is currently the subject of a solo show at Lévy Gorvy in Hong Kong.) His top five auction prices have all been set this year, including the $275,000 paid for New York, New York (2019) at Christie’s in May. Last June, the dealer-turned-painter drew exactly zero searches in the PDB; last month, he got 91. 

Kim Tschang-yeul (1929–2021)

Kim Tschang, Yeul Water Drops. Courtesy of Tina Kim Gallery.

The Korean painter, who escaped the North’s Communist regime as a young man and eventually settled in Paris, spent his 40-year career exploring one motif: water droplets. The artist’s top three auction prices have all been set since his death in January, including his first result over $1 million. CSH 1 (1978), a painting of droplets that look like beads skittering across a surface, fetched $1.3 million at Christie’s Hong Kong on May 24, exceeding its $700,000 high estimate. On the primary market, Kim Tschang-yeul is represented by Tina Kim Gallery and Almine Rech. 

Katherine Bernhardt (b. 1975)

Katherine Bernhardt, Untitled (2016). Courtesy of the artist and CANADA.

The New York-based artist, known for her wacky neon paintings that juxtapose the Pink Panther, watermelons, cigarettes, and other quirky obsessions, is another example of a figure with a dedicated fan base on the primary market now finding even broader appeal at auction. The number of searches for her work in the PDB more than doubled between this year and last (59 in June 2020; 147 in June 2021) and her top three auction prices have all been set this year. Her secondary market presence is likely only to grow now that she has jumped from Canada to mega-gallery David Zwirner, a move that is likely to make her works even harder to get on the primary market. 

300 Most-Searched Artists in the Artnet Price Database, June 2021