In its September issue, Art+Auction compiled a list of the 25 most collectible midcareer artists working today. This month, ARTINFO will publish one installment from the feature per day. Click here to read Art+Auction editor-in-chief Eric Bryant’s introduction to the list. To see all the installments published so far, click here.
Marco Maggi | b. 1957 | United States
Evocative of circuit boards, aerial views of cities, or biological systems, the drawings, installations, and sculptures that the Uruguay-born, New York–based Maggi creates require the viewer to slow down and reflect on the mundane nature of the materials he has employed such as office supplies, aluminum foil, and X-Acto knife etched mirrors.
For the current Venice Biennale, the artist created Global Myopia, a work consisting 10,000 self-adhesive elements that he carefully folded and stuck onto the walls of the Uruguay Pavilion over the three months leading up to the event.
While artist prices often soar on the heels of a Venice presentation, Maggi’s gallerists—Josée Bienvenu in New York, Galeria Nara Roesler in São Paulo, Sicardi Gallery in Houston, Galería Cayón in Madrid, and Xippas Gallery in Punta del Este, Geneva, Paris, and Montevideo—project more measured growth. Smaller pieces priced at $600 a decade ago now command $10,000. Larger works go for up to $100,000.
But sticker shock has never been the artist’s goal, says Bienvenu. “What matters most to him and to us is that his commercial evolution be completely in parallel with his academic recognition.” MoMA, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Whitney Museum of American Art are among the vaunted institutions that have acquired Maggi’s works, which take center stage on September 5 at Xippas in Paris and on September 10 at Josée Bienvenu. On October 31, Espacio Monitor in Caracas debuts a solo show of his work, which will be followed by a November 14 opening at Nara Roesler.
