Danielle Mckinney (b.1981, the USA)
Stand Still (2023)
Oil on canvas
50,8 x 40,6 cm
Estimate: 40,000 – 60,000 USD
Lot sold: 279 400 USD
Danielle Mckinney’s specialty is rest and relaxation. The American artist creates sumptuous paintings that depict Black women in moments of peaceful solitude, where her subjects are often draped in silk, velvet, or feathers, and surrounded by soft furnishings. They appear blissfully unaware of the viewer’s gaze – it seems as if they revel in the spaces Mckinney has created for them. Depicted within their own homes, her painted figures ooze a comfortability. In some works, they clutch a lit cigarette that burns warm orange at the tip. In others, their chin sits gently on their hand. “I think as a child my world was very traumatic outside, but in the house it was safe,” noted Mckinney. “I enjoy quiet time, it fuels me. I paint what I know, and, of course, I’m a Black woman and I enjoy rest.”

Romare Bearden (1911-1988, the USA)
Profile/Part II, The Thirties: Sitting in at Baron's (1980)
Collage on Masonite
101,6 x 76,2 cm
Estimate: 200,000 – 300,000 USD
Lot sold: 952 500 USD
Romare Bearden, an African-American artist and writer, is renowned for his collages and photomontages a technique he began to experiment with in 1950s, establishing his reputation as a leading contemporary artist. Bearden’s work reflects his improvisational approach to his practice. He considered his process akin to that of jazz and blues composers. Starting with an open mind, he would let an idea evolve spontaneously. Bearden’s approach was intuitive, a dialogue between tradition and innovation. After a few years painting abstractions in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Bearden turned again to photomontage and collage, which established his reputation as a leading contemporary artist.

Ed Ruscha (b.1937, the USA)
Yip Yip (1994)
Acrylic on canvas
213,4 x 152,4 cm
Estimate: 600,000 – 800,000 USD
Lot sold: 2 246 000 USD
Ed Ruscha is an American artist whose oeuvre melds Pop Art iconography with the documentarian rigor of Conceptual Art. With a practice that spans drawing, painting, photography, film, printmaking, and publishing, Ruscha’s background as a graphic designer is evident in his subtle use of typography.
He is perhaps best known for his artist’s books, such as Twentysix Gasoline Stations (1963), as well as his word paintings which skew the meaning of each word through color, background, and font. “I like the idea of a word becoming a picture, almost leaving its body, then coming back and becoming a word again,” he said of his inspiration. Throughout his six-decade-long career, Ruscha has consistently demonstrated his shrewd wit and technical dexterity.

Rashid Johnson (b.1977, the USA)
Two Standing Broken Men (2018)
Ceramic tile, mirror tile, oyster shells, branded red oak, spray enamel, oilstick, black soap and wax
241.3 x 185.4 cm
Estimate: 800,000 – 1.200,000 USD
Lot sold: 1 758 000 USD
Rashid Johnson today is among an influential cadre of contemporary American artists whose work employs a wide range of media to explore themes of art history, individual and shared cultural identities, personal narratives, literature, philosophy, materiality, and critical history. His practice quickly expanded to embrace a wide range of media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, film making, and installation, yielding a complex multidisciplinary practice that incorporates diverse materials rich with symbolism and personal history.
Johnsons work is known for its narrative embedding of a pointed range of everyday materials and objects, often associated with his childhood and frequently referencing aspects of history and cultural identity. Many of his more recent works delve into existential themes such as personal and collective anxiety, interiority, and liminal space.

Yu Nishimura (b.1982, Japan)Across the place (2023)Oil on canvas194,3 x 161,9 cmEstimate: 50,000 – 70,000 USDLot sold: 406 400 USD
Yu Nishimura’s layered paintings draw from everyday sources such as street photography, anime, and the varied landscapes of Japan to explore the passage of time and memory. His dreamlike portraits and urban scenes balance graphic clarity with a sense of melancholic reflection, often incorporating blurred edges and overlapping perspectives. His paintings often depict subtle moments, including figures in quiet contemplation, animals in motion, or transient urban scenes, inviting viewers to consider the impermanence and layered nature of perception.