Javier Calleja Value: Top Prices Paid at Auction

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.

Don't Take It All to Heart (2018) sold at Sotheby's London in March 2022, significantly exceeding its high estimate of £450,000. The child-like character is again another example of Calleja’s innocent and approachable figures - perhaps more so in this piece, thanks to the perfect roundness of the eyes. The phrase, typical of Calleja's text-based works, offers a message of emotional resilience, encouraging viewers not to be overwhelmed by life's difficulties, which is somewhat less ominous and ironic than phrases such as “DON’T BE BAD,” and “I DON’T CARE.” The piece blends pop art, cartoon art, and introspective emotional cues - three key characteristics of work from Calleja’s breakthrough period. The painting's inclusion in his 2018 solo show "I hope you don't mind" at Yusto/Giner Gallery in Málaga underscores its importance in his oeuvre.

The March 2021 sale of Waiting For A While (2019) at Christie’s Hong Kong represents a pivotal milestone in Calleja's career trajectory - it was the first piece to reach one million US dollars. This acrylic on canvas work measuring 130 × 116 cm features one of his signature characters with orange hair and green eyes, sitting pensively, with the phrase "WAITING FOR A WHILE" on a section of exposed white canvas in the background. The composition's frame-within-a-frame effect adds narrative depth, suggesting the character is sitting within the frame while he waits for something from the viewer. The result is both humorous and unsettling. The sale coincided with a period of explosive demand for Calleja's work, especially in Asia, and confirmed his status as a leading figure in contemporary figurative painting. Its emotional ambiguity and accessible imagery are quintessential Calleja traits that continue to resonate with collectors.

The 2021 sale of Look Out (2018) at Christie’s Hong Kong is another example of the enthusiasm for Calleja's work in Asian markets. It sold for almost double its high estimate - a notably common event for Calleja’s work in recent years. It was painted a year after Calleja’s 2017 Hong Kong exhibition, where he first introduced his wide-eyed child-like characters to the Asian art market, which, as we’ve seen, quickly gained commercial momentum. Rather than looking directly at the viewer, this character looks off to the left of the viewer, directing attention with an exaggeratedly pointed arm. The phrase “LOOK OUT,” is, here, Calleja’s blend of comedy and menace in its most stringent form, seemingly to gleefully warn the viewer about an unseen threat outside the frame of the canvas.

Do Not Touch (2018) carries particular significance as the namesake of Calleja's solo exhibition at Nansuka Gallery in Tokyo (November-December 2018). The painting features one of his signature characters wearing a yellow shirt with "DO NOT TOUCH" written on it. The character’s eyes, as in all of Calleja’s portraits, are deliberately more three-dimensional than the hair, clothes, and skin, adding substance and depth that captures the viewer’s attention as if to relay a message. The work sold at Christie's Shanghai in March 2022, achieving the top end of its estimate. Like in Look Out (2018), the humour of the piece comes from an unseen danger. The painting shares its title with Calleja's famous sculpture series - a collection of toy-like figurines accompanied by canvases that ironically read ‘DO NOT TOUCH,’ - creating a conceptual link between his two-dimensional and three-dimensional practices.

A Little Crazy (2018) holds special significance as one of Calleja's works featured at Art Basel Hong Kong in March 2018, a critical event in the development of his international collector base. After this debut, the painting was acquired from Nanzuka Gallery in Tokyo and later made this top 10 auction sale at Ravenel International Art Group, Taiwan, in July 2021. Calleja announced this work on Instagram with the caption "Monday mood...A Little crazy. Coming soon on @artbasel Hong Kong..." - the kind of direct, unfiltered engagement with his audience that is rarely seen in blue chip artists of Calleja’s status. This voice fits with the tone of his paintings, and no doubt helped to shape his success in this crucial career-building period. The work's substantial size and its exhibition at one of the world's premier art fairs underscore its importance within Calleja's broader portfolio of work.

Same Old Story (2018), despite making it onto this list of top 10 auction results, presents an interesting case study in the volatility of Calleja's market. This painting has had a fascinating auction journey, achieving an extraordinary 737% above mid-estimate performance when sold in Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October 2021 for £442,421. However, when it appeared at Seoul Auction in May 2022, it sold for significantly below its high estimate of £1.9 million. This price fluctuation demonstrates the evolving nature of Calleja's market as it reached maturity, but also the unexpected popularity of Calleja’s work in some key markets, particularly Hong Kong. This sale still, however, made it into Calleja’s top 10 results, because it perfectly exemplifies the artist’s style - with a bold, emotionally evocative colour field, captivating three-dimensional eyes, and an ambiguous and thought-provoking t-shirt slogan.

You Me (2019) is a rare multi-figure composition. It sold at Phillips & Poly Hong Kong in November 2021, exceeding its estimate by almost 50%, after remaining in private collections since its original sale at the Dorothy Circus Gallery in Rome in 2019. Its title, which was translated at the Hong Kong auction to “The Two Of Us,” still manages to draw the viewer into the narrative, despite the focus being on the parental and child relationship that is the subject. Rather than communicating with the viewer, the viewer becomes one of Calleja’s innocent, child-like characters, laden with the task of representing some universal truth.