My take on this, is Micallef was shoehorned into the urban art scene when he shouldn't have been. He was then used by some 'characters' who pumped and dumped his work. He openly talked at an event last year about this period as just a phase, which he had no plans of returning to. He seemed to visibly cringe at works like his peacekeeper piece. That was my interpretation of his views. He seemed much happier taking about his portraits and current works.

We have a " what love looks like" hung in the bedroom, appreciated daily, a very simple, excellent print. Even the good lady likes it.

I think the original Eyestorm prints were around 400gbp each at the time but got hoovered up pretty quickly when it was rumoured that he was moving to Laz. They were/are lovely prints but are also Giclees and there was a lot if discussion at the time as to the longevity/ value of this method. Don't think the uzi prints really worked IMO and as a previous poster said lots of artists lost a lot of value in 08/09 and he is one that didn't recover. Lovely work, still have a pair of angel bombers that I really like. I'm pretty sure I remember 21c love reaching over £10k around LA which seemed a touch excessive.

I think the original Eyestorm prints were around 400gbp each at the time but got hoovered up pretty quickly when it was rumoured that he was moving to Laz. They were/are lovely prints but are also Giclees and there was a lot if discussion at the time as to the longevity/ value of this method. Don't think the uzi prints really worked IMO and as a previous poster said lots of artists lost a lot of value in 08/09 and he is one that didn't recover. Lovely work, still have a pair of angel bombers that I really like. I'm pretty sure I remember 21c love reaching over £10k around LA which seemed a touch excessive.

Dirty Deluxe and 21st Century Love were Giclees not too sure on the others but they weren't as complex colourwise so perhaps there were more options open on them.

LA was Micallef's 'Beautiful Inside My Head Forever'.  The moment that felt good at the time but marked the high water mark from which it all receded.

Micallef is a very talented artist(though I prefer older work to the thick impasto works he is doing now).  However, in this world that is not enough.  There are a million Chinese who can paint as well as any artist on this forum.  That doesn't mean their work is worth a thing.

But, prior to LA and the infamous print drop around the same time, Micallef was very hot amongst a very narrow group.  The LA show was supposed to replicate the Banksy LA moment, and Laz pushed prices way, way, way, way beyond what they should have been.  I'm talking tens of thousands, some a couple of hundred thousand.  In retrospect(and at the time) it was absolutely ridiculous.  

So, you have a young artist of great talent, whose prices have now risen to a level where there is just no support.  His top-end work goes stone cold.

On the low end, the release of a 1000 edition print killed the print-flipping market, the hype, the talk, the lust, the desire.  Micallef's prints go from selling for up to $15k(for the quite excellent '21st Century Love') and lust for 'Girl in Red Dress' to stone cold.  

He hasn't recovered.  Probably won't recover.  The art world is littered with formerly hot painters that now teach art history, or do graphic design on the side.

That being said, damn is he fantastic.  I absolutely love his mid-to-late 2000's work.  Hoping for a large, well-printed coffee table book one day.
 

The only thing I have framed quite so fussily, but then not everything needs plain black or white

We have a " what love looks like" hung in the bedroom, appreciated daily, a very simple, excellent print. Even the good lady likes it.