A mind-blowing $3.7 billion worth of fine art sold at auction last month. That total is up more than 500 percent from 2020, and more than 30 percent from 2019.

High-wattage evening sales at Christie’s and Sotheby’s, which delivered nine-figure totals for the blue-chip Macklowe and Cox collections, made up a big share of November’s haul. But the eye-watering figure was also buttressed by the seemingly unending global demand for new art from fresh faces.  

Last month’s frothy activity—and evidence of bidding wars to come—can be tracked on the Artnet Price Database. 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 top-searched artists on the Artnet Price Database in November 2021. (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 might soon. While the biggest earners last month (Picasso, Rothko, Van Gogh) are known quantities, most of these younger figures made splashes outside the glare of the New York evening sales. Considering their strong performances, however, they just might show up on the main stage before you know it.

Notable Fast-Risers

Oluwole Omofemi (b. 1988)

Oluwole Omofemi, Metamorphosis II (2020). Image courtesy of Phillips.

The Nigerian artist has seen nine of his stylish portraits hit the auction block this year, all but one of which decimated expectations. On December 9, Metamorphosis II (2020), a painting of a young woman with a prominent Afro against a floral backdrop, fetched £100,800 ($132,946) at Phillips London’s New Now sale, overshooting its £8,000 high estimate by 1,160 percent. A number of Omofemi’s high-flying works at auction were acquired directly out of his studio in the Nigerian city of Ibadan. But others were originally sold in a February 2021 show at Barcelona’s Out of Africa Gallery. Now, that’s a fast turnaround—and a sign of speculators pulling the strings. Omofemi drew zero searches in the Artnet Price Database this time last year; last month, he commanded 61. 

Matías Sánchez (b. 1972)

Matías Sánchez, Campesino (2015–16). Image courtesy of Phillips.

Born in Germany and based in Seville, Spain, Matías Sánchez has a style that is particularly fashionable at the moment, especially among young collectors in Asia. Many of his compositions boast thick, impastoed abstract brushwork, atop which sit cartoonish characters with bulbous noses. (Think James Ensor meets Invader.) Sánchez shows with Germany’s Galerie Zink Waldkirchen, which has also dealt in the work of fellow cartoon-depicting Spanish market star Javier Calleja. In September, Sánchez’s Campesino (2015–16) fetched 478,800 HKD ($61,506) at Phillips Hong Kong, almost 10 times its 50,000 HKD ($6,422) high estimate. Sanchez was not on the Artnet Price Database radar in November 2020; one year later, he drew 46 searches. 

María Berrío (b. 1982)

Maria Berrio, Cricket Song. Courtesy of Praxis.

Many of the artists on this list could be called “auction artists.” Their work is shown at small galleries outside major art-market capitals, finds its way into the hands of influential collector-dealers, and swiftly begins making big prices at day sales. María Berrío is different. The Colombia-born, Brooklyn-based artist creates meticulously crafted collages from Japanese paper that blend images from South American folklore with contemporary life. She secured gallery representation (Victoria Miro, Kohn Gallery), museum acquisitions, and a long list of admirers well before her work ended up on the auction market. Her one and only auction sale was, atypically, at Sotheby’s The Now evening sale on November 18 (most artists hit the auction market for the first time in day sales). It fetched $927,500 (estimate: $80,000–120,000). Not coincidentally, Berrio had no searches in the PDB until last month, when she notched 28. 

Emmanuel Taku (b. 1986)

Emmanuel Taku, Sisters in Pink (2021). Image courtesy of Phillips.

Emmanuel Taku studied alongside now-famous fellow portraitists Amoako Boafo and Otis Kwame Kye Quaicoe at the Ghanatta Institute of Art and Design. Now, it is his turn to break out. In one of this season’s fastest trips from studio to auction block (and there is a lot of competition), his painting Sisters in Pink (2021) fetched $189,000 at a Phillips New York day sale on November 18, shattering its $35,000 high estimate. (In less than a year, it changed hands twice and then found its way to auction.) The bubble-gum hued composition of four Black women walking hand-in-hand exemplifies Taku’s style, which is reminiscent of Barkley Hendricks, and which he has dubbed “figurative surrealism.” Taku is represented by Maruani Mercier in Paris and completed the inaugural Noldor Artist Residency in Accra in 2020. He drew (you guessed it) zero searches in the PDB in November 2020. Last month, that number rose to 25.

Alex Gardner (b. 1987)

Alex Gardner, Designer Sunglasses (2017). Image courtesy of Phillips.

Alex Gardner’s acrylic paintings have a Mannerist-meets-millennial aesthetic. One dark-skinned figure’s elongated arm drapes over another’s leg; dressed in white, their faces are smooth and featureless. The California-based artist has been the subject of two shows at New York’s The Hole and is a regular presence on the art-fair circuit. (Gardner also shows with New Image Art in Los Angeles.) This year, demand bubbled over into the auction sphere, with six of the artist’s paintings hitting the block. A work on canvas titled Designer Sunglasses (2017) fetched $176,400 at Phillips New York’s day sale on November 18, far exceeding its $60,000 high estimate. It was Gardner’s fifth work to crack six figures in 2021. One year after Gardner drew zero searches in November 2020, he saw 23 last month. 

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