In-demand British painter Flora Yukhnovich, known for her florid canvases that draw equally on the traditions of French Rococo, Italian Baroque, and Abstract Expressionism, is the latest artist to sign with Hauser and Wirth.
“Flora is an artist with a remarkable creative vision who is defining her own language of painting to conjure a compelling universe. There is an unmistakable force and energy to her work. She mines art history while applying conceptual rigour in considering a broad sweep of cultural references from 18th-century painting to the current day,” gallery president Iwan Wirth said in a statement.
In addition to her new representation at Hauser and Wirth, Yukhnovich has shown with Victoria Miro in London since 2021.
Yukhnovich will make her debut with the mega gallery with a solo show in Los Angeles in 2024. She also has a solo show “Ashmolean Now: Flora Yukhnovich x Daniel Crews-Chubb,” opening next month at the Ashmolean, Oxford.
Flora Yukhnovich, (2022). Photo courtesy of Hauser and Wirth.
Born in London in 1990, Yukhnovich received her masters degree at City and Guilds of London Art School in 2017. She was still in school when she began to attract a following on Instagram for her swirling, dreamlike pastel compositions, christened with distinctive titles like , , and .
Her first dealer, Matt Watkins of Parafin in London, snapped her up straight out of art school after spotting her work on the social media platform.
Since April 2021, the artist has had 37 lots come up at auction, all of which have sold, with 10 for over $1 million, according to the Artnet Price Database. The first couple were small works on paper that performed well above their estimates, but hardly made headlines.
Flora Yukhnovich, (2022). Photo courtesy of Hauser and Wirth.
Then came the first oil painting, on offer at Phillips New York that June with a modest $60,000 to $80,000 estimate. It sold for $1.17 million, an increase of 1,374 percent. Yukhnovich’s market took off from there, with the £2.25 million ($3 million) at Sotheby’s London, and another nearly-seven-figure sale at Christie’s London, both in October 2021.
Her current auction record stands at £2.69 million ($3.6 million), set at Sotheby’s London in March 2022. This year’s results have been slightly less explosive, with the most expensive of the six lots offered to date selling for £939,800 ($1.13 million).
“I am thrilled to be joining Hauser and Wirth,” Yukhnovich said in a statement. “I have long admired so many of the gallery’s artists—from painters Maria Lassnig to Pat Steir, to those working more conceptually, such as Pipilotti Rist and Roni Horn—and am honored to be among such a roster.”
