The art market may be red hot – with auction houses posting more than $15 billion in sales for the first time last year – but you don’t have to spend millions, or even thousands, to access fantastic highly collectible work.
Art-product boutiques, museum shops, and other marketplaces now sell affordable limited editions and special products created by the world’s most sought-after artists that retain the provenance and authenticity a collector seeks. Often, these products grow in value on a similar pace to the artist’s unique works and paintings. And auction houses increasingly accept these works as integral to artists’ ouevre.
ARTnews is on the hunt for new and interesting affordable art products that have real art world significance, support a museum’s mission, benefit a charity, or otherwise contribute to the art community
Take a look at our current favorites. But, if one catches your eye, act quickly, as most of these items are made in limited numbers and frequently sell out:
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, ARTNews may receive an affiliate commission.
Limited Edition Porcelain Pitcher by Shantell Martin, $165
Photo : Artware Editions
For World Water Day 2022, London-based visual artist and poly-hyphenate creative Shantell Martin, along with three other cutting-edge contemporary Black artists (Hugo McCloud, Patrick Martinez, and Amy Amalia), created 150 limited-edition porcelain pitchers to support African Medical and Research Foundation (“AMREF”). The sale of the pitchers will help AMREF provide over 220,000 gallons of clean water to remote communities in Africa.
Martin has shown in prestigious solo shows at renowned art institutions like the 92Y Gallery in New York City, the iconic Albright Knox Gallery, and the New Britain Museum of Contemporary Arts. Her visual art, paintings, and NFTs are increasingly sought after by collectors, but at the same time, Martin collaborates with iconic brands such as Puma, Nike, Vitra, Max Mara, Tiffany & Co., Warby Parker, and many others. She has also collaborated with legendary artists like Kendrick Lamar and acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler.
These sumptuous works should really be displayed as sculpture rather than used — each are incredible artworks.
Derrick Adams for RX Art, $35
The unicorn float toy is highly representative of Brooklyn-based artist Derrick Adams’ overall work, as some of his most notable works come from the Floater series — where he portrays Black Americans at leisure. In Adams’ view, rest and recreation is a political act when embraced by black communities.
Adams’ critically admired work spans painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound installations. Adams’ works are immersed in questions of how African American experiences intersect with art history, American iconography, and consumerism. His art resides in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; among many others.
The tote bag borrows one iconic piece of imagery Adams used in six playful large-scale murals installed in childrens’ treatment rooms in the Pediatric Emergency Department at New York City Health + Hospitals, Harlem. All proceeds support RxART’s mission to help children heal through the power of visual art.
Joel Mesler, limited edition artist’s plate on bone china, $195
Mesler’s bright, joyful neo-pop plate exemplifies his aesthetic, and offers but one of many amazing artist-designed plates as part of the Artist Plate Project, where proceeds support the non-profit Coalition for the Homeless. The funds raised by the sales provide food, housing, and other critical aid to thousands of people experiencing homelessness.
The purchase of just one plate can feed up to 100 homeless New Yorkers. Other works from the Artist Plate Project remain available at time of writing by Austin Lee, Lisa Yuskavage, and Keith Haring.
Joel Mesler is known for making instantly accessible, graphic paintings combining bright and verdant flora, snakes, and short phrases creating a message that is sometimes feel-good and sometimes zany. Popular paintings by Mesler routinely sell for six-figure sums. An MFA graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, Mesler worked for almost two decades as an art dealer, painting on and off while promoting artists like Henry Taylor and Rashid Johnson early in their careers.
More recently, he has focused on his own artwork as demand and interest has sky-rocketed.
Misaki Kawai, limited-edition cushion sculpture, $85
This amazing soft sculpture is in the vein of the plush, childlike aesthetic for which Japanese artist Misaki Kawai has become known. The work comes direct from her studio website, where she always curates a number of other whimsical art products and limited-edition art books.
Kawai creates installations out of papier-mâché, wood, fabric, and other low-tech, “crafty” materials like felt, stickers, and yarn. She shuns expertise and uses an anime method called heta-uma that “risks amateur aesthetics by embracing basic expression”, and has become an increasingly important international artistic influence.
Kawai has held exhibitions around the world, including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; Malmö Konsthall in Sweden; Children’s Museum of Arts in New York; and the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.
Limited Edition Porcelain Pitcher by Shantell Martin, $165
White porcelain pitcher, kiln-fired screen-print wraps both sides, edition of 150, edition details and printed signature on verso.Photo : Artware EditionsBuy: Limited Edition Porcelain Pitcher by Shantell Martin, $165Buy it
For World Water Day 2022, London-based visual artist and poly-hyphenate creative Shantell Martin, along with three other cutting-edge contemporary Black artists (Hugo McCloud, Patrick Martinez, and Amy Amalia), created 150 limited-edition porcelain pitchers to support African Medical and Research Foundation (“AMREF”). The sale of the pitchers will help AMREF provide over 220,000 gallons of clean water to remote communities in Africa.
Martin has shown in prestigious solo shows at renowned art institutions like the 92Y Gallery in New York City, the iconic Albright Knox Gallery, and the New Britain Museum of Contemporary Arts. Her visual art, paintings, and NFTs are increasingly sought after by collectors, but at the same time, Martin collaborates with iconic brands such as Puma, Nike, Vitra, Max Mara, Tiffany & Co., Warby Parker, and many others. She has also collaborated with legendary artists like Kendrick Lamar and acclaimed designer Kelly Wearstler.
These sumptuous works should really be displayed as sculpture rather than used — each are incredible artworks.
Derrick Adams for RX Art, $35
Limited edition canvas RxART tote bag with “How I Spend My Summer Break (Unicorn)”, 2021, by Derrick Adams.Photo : RxArtBuy: Derrick Adams for RX Art $35Buy it
The unicorn float toy is highly representative of Brooklyn-based artist Derrick Adams’ overall work, as some of his most notable works come from the Floater series — where he portrays Black Americans at leisure. In Adams’ view, rest and recreation is a political act when embraced by black communities.
Adams’ critically admired work spans painting, collage, sculpture, performance, video, and sound installations. Adams’ works are immersed in questions of how African American experiences intersect with art history, American iconography, and consumerism. His art resides in the collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Studio Museum in Harlem; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; among many others.
The tote bag borrows one iconic piece of imagery Adams used in six playful large-scale murals installed in childrens’ treatment rooms in the Pediatric Emergency Department at New York City Health + Hospitals, Harlem. All proceeds support RxART’s mission to help children heal through the power of visual art.
Joel Mesler, limited edition artist’s plate on bone china, $195
“Untitled (Bruised Fruit)”, 2020, fine bone china, produced by Prospect, Limited edition of 250, printed signature and edition details on verso.Photo : Artware EditionsBuy: Joel Mesler, limited edition artist’s plate on bone china $195Buy it
Mesler’s bright, joyful neo-pop plate exemplifies his aesthetic, and offers but one of many amazing artist-designed plates as part of the Artist Plate Project, where proceeds support the non-profit Coalition for the Homeless. The funds raised by the sales provide food, housing, and other critical aid to thousands of people experiencing homelessness.
The purchase of just one plate can feed up to 100 homeless New Yorkers. Other works from the Artist Plate Project remain available at time of writing by Austin Lee, Lisa Yuskavage, and Keith Haring.
Joel Mesler is known for making instantly accessible, graphic paintings combining bright and verdant flora, snakes, and short phrases creating a message that is sometimes feel-good and sometimes zany. Popular paintings by Mesler routinely sell for six-figure sums. An MFA graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, Mesler worked for almost two decades as an art dealer, painting on and off while promoting artists like Henry Taylor and Rashid Johnson early in their careers.
More recently, he has focused on his own artwork as demand and interest has sky-rocketed.
Misaki Kawai, limited-edition cushion sculpture, $85
“Moko Moko Peko Peko” Cushion, produced in conjunction with Kitty Bunny Pony, Limited edition of unknown number.Photo : Courtesy of Misaki KawaiBuy: Misaki Kawai, limited-edition cushion sculpture $85Buy it
This amazing soft sculpture is in the vein of the plush, childlike aesthetic for which Japanese artist Misaki Kawai has become known. The work comes direct from her studio website, where she always curates a number of other whimsical art products and limited-edition art books.
Kawai creates installations out of papier-mâché, wood, fabric, and other low-tech, “crafty” materials like felt, stickers, and yarn. She shuns expertise and uses an anime method called heta-uma that “risks amateur aesthetics by embracing basic expression”, and has become an increasingly important international artistic influence.
Kawai has held exhibitions around the world, including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; Malmö Konsthall in Sweden; Children’s Museum of Arts in New York; and the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo.
Ryan McGinley, beach towel for Art Production Fund, $95
This massive cotton beach towel is in a limited edition of unknown number. At the time of writing, Art Production Fund still lists a handful of available beach towel works by other leading contemporary artists like Glenn Ligon, Laurie Simmons, and Julian Schnabel. All proceeds support the Art Production Fund’s mission of creating important public art. The striking towels can be framed as large-scale visual art for your home or, if one prefers, used at the beach.
Ryan McGinley is one of the foremost living American art photographers, whose mostly large-scale photographs have become sought after by collectors of art photography, and those interested in the Bowery School of the early 2000s, which included artists like Dash Snow and Dan Colen.
In 2003, at the age of 25, McGinley was one of the youngest artists to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. His early work exalted the rebellious spirit of downtown Manhattan and he has built an oeuvre of refined studio portraits that explore queer culture, identity, and iconic American landscapes.
