Javier
Calleja

This ambitious installation, comprising 30 individual works in a multi-part, wall-based format spanning an expansive 185 × 730 cm, sold at Phillips & Poly Hong Kong in November 2021, almost doubling its high estimate and setting the auction record for Calleja’s work. Unlike his typical individual canvases, this installation demonstrates Calleja's versatility. It was created in 2017 - the year Calleja debuted his big-eyed children in Asia - and thus provides an early and important example of his signature aesthetic. The piece demonstrates his interest in scale, repetition, and the creation of environments that envelop the viewer in his whimsical, emotionally charged world.

I Don't Care (2020) exemplifies Calleja's talent for capturing emotional depth and complexity through seemingly simple subjects and compositions on particularly large canvases - this piece is almost 2 metres tall. The title phrase "I DON'T CARE" appears prominently on the character's t-shirt, a technique of subverting the innocent character’s expression that appears on many of Calleja’s portraits. These words also serve to create a dialogue between the artist and the viewer. The painting was first exhibited at Bill Brady Gallery, Miami, in the show Sooner or Later in October 2020 before selling at Christie's Hong Kong in May 2023, surpassing its estimate and cementing Calleja’s reputation as a blue-chip contemporary artist.

Don't Be Bad (2019) sold at Sotheby's New York in March 2022, exceeding its estimate by nearly $300,000. The large-scale acrylic painting depicts one of Calleja's iconic characters with bright orange hair, blue eyes, and the phrase "DON'T BE BAD" on a pale shirt. The bold yellow background and direct gaze create a playful yet slightly admonishing tone, typical of his strategy of pairing innocent visuals with gently ironic text. This work was created at the height of Calleja's market ascent and was included in major exhibitions, including at Nanzuka Gallery in Hong Kong. The phrase on the shirt is emblematic of his use of simple English slogans to evoke universal sentiments, contributing to the work's strong performance at auction.