I appreciate your input and I doubt this will be successful but I don't think making a quick buck is anyone's motivation here, it's not an attempt to help out pejac and yes we all know the prices his work goes for as you quoted at us earlier. Basically as iv said all he can say is no and if so that's fine, but imagine if he said yes! I'm guessing you would be shouting the thread down to be in line for a print. There is no need to be negative here if it's a yes that's amazing and means we get a print by (in my opinion) one of the best artists around if it's a no then that's that.

Ive run a couple of commissions through the forum and Facebook. And it can be great fun. And a great way to get to know an artist and help them develop exposure to a new audience. And also get to know people on the forum.

It's very very time consuming and you need to be completely on it all the time. If you're OCD and a fan of spreadsheets and lists then you'll be fine.

Ive reached out to many artists in the past regarding commission. Not all reply, those that do are genuinely pleased you've shown an interest in their work.

It can be a mind field trying to nail down an image and appease everyone in the group. By nature youre not going to please everyone and it's about managing the expectation of the group and the artist.

Ive reached out to max about a Pejac commission. And the short of it is that Pejac will not be taking on any commissions. And his work load it pretty hectic.

How can you say you would want to keep it when you don't even know what it looks like!?

Support an emerging artist should mean finding someone and help them build a fan base not trying to get an exclusive from an already well established artist.

To be honest it would have been sensible to ask you what you had done first as I think you're one of the few who have successfully managed to do a commission print. Was the response from Pejac a definate no at any time?

It wasn't a definitive no from max. It's just they have so much on thier plate at the moment. I asked a few months ago before scattercrow was released. So they were balls deep in that as well.

In my opinion i think it's a pipe dream to get a group commission from an established artist in such demand as Pejac. As they frankly don't need to worry about doing projects like that. As they will always sell releases out

It's nice when artists do commissions "for their fans" amongst their day to day work. But it's really tricky to fit it in the busy diary.

It can happen tho. Ive been in commission with eelus and prefab who both had busy work loads. Who still managed to fit us in.

It all depends on the artist. It's a nice idea to buddy up with an emerging artist. As it'll probably work out cheaper, they'll be more scope for discussion and you'll help build up their profile

"Never any harm in asking." is a platitude.

In this context, it's also a thought-terminating cliché. So I'll challenge it for the sake of discussion.

Depending on the situation, it is my view there sometimes can be harm in asking — at least for the person asking.


Two examples:


1. A possible harm is the waste of one's time and energy. The older one gets, the easier it becomes to appreciate these are both very limited resources. Time and energy spent trying to do one thing could otherwise have been spent (perhaps more productively and rewardingly) elsewhere, such as with family and friends. These two resources should therefore be treated as precious — not allocated to wishful-thinking exercises where the likelihood of success is pretty much zero.

Taking extreme examples to better make the point, would you also contact Andreas Gursky or Jeff Koons or Damien Hirst on the basis that there's "never any harm in asking"?


2. More decidedly in the Pejac case is the possible damage to one's reputation. Asking will have an impact (negative, I believe) on the manner in which the asker is perceived.

I'll put myself in the shoes of Max Ruiz for this thought experiment:

If someone were to approach me with an offer similar to the one being proposed, I'd view them as naive. Worse still, it would make patently clear to me that they were clueless about what I've been trying for years to achieve with Pejac's career.

And so, as a consequence of merely asking, that person would immediately drop in my esteem. With their credibility tainted, I'd be less likely to engage with them going forward. I wouldn't see them as informed or experienced collectors. They would not therefore be serious candidates if I were considering different private collections where future Pejac originals could be placed.

I'm not being negative, but the chance of pejac doing such a comission is practically none (prove me wrong though). Why waste time on something which is just impossible?

Perhaps, just perhaps, if a printhouse like graffiti print approach max on a collaboration - which might eventually carry a tiny chance of working out into a deal to do something only for the forum - there is a slim chance of a print for the forum happening.

Probably far less known artists will be keen on a comission at this point, but then not many members here would want to take part if that's the case.

It might actually be more appealing to Max if it was a Suben commission group, with one of them being Pejac at some point. It would mean him being able to showcase some of the other artists he manages.

Well regarding time, it seemed to take approximately 30 seconds to ask. Although I am not yet that old, 30 seconds even to an aged type is not a vast amount of time.

The problem is that some people seem to focus to closely on what others would think about them. I dont think anyone would be 'insulted' by a request to buy their work. Or 'naive' to ask. I think one could say its aloof and demeaning to those you think have no idea about how this works to make broad statements like that. As to credability - to whom and for what, we are not galleries or art dealers (in the main) why does supposed credability matter? All for the sake of discussion though!

I know and I was advocating asking GP to be involved. They may not be in their stable but they have an active working relationship with each artist that none of us do, so it would make sense that they approach the artists, rather than any of us.

Same goes with Max for any Suben artist.

GP x Suben isn't going to happen anytime soon IMO.

I follow Shelby and Sandy on Instagram...
Might be an option because a lot of their originals are commissioned but they've not done many prints.
www.instagram.com/shelbyandsandy/

I think Met makes a valid and pertinent argument. My argument is even simpler - why on earth would a well established, sell out artist want to do the members of this forum a favour? Can you give me five reasons?

Ah the irony... made a living using art as a medium against ideas such as capitalism but now too busy making bucks to talk to the people 😉

Think this in all seriousness as others have pointed out would work much better with up and coming artists. Artists like Dylan Gebbia-Richards used the likes of Hatchfund to get themselves started.

At the risk of getting flamed ......

we all belong to the UAA and on here we have a number of people who are artist's who regularly advise of what they are doing in terms of work.

There are people on this forum who spend a great deal of time promoting their work and detailing when its available - Leo B, Zanda, Dan K, ABC to name just a few.

So if we go back to what I see the title of this thread is and what I expected this to transpire into - I thought we were looking to support through a commission an artist (or possibly a number) by asking them to produce a print be it limited edition or whatever that a number of us would commit to purchasing BEFORE it was produced to help them get a foot on the ladder.

I know many of the people on this forum have strong opinions on what they like and do not like (and what constitutes good art and bad).... so on the basis that we are an URBAN art association we should be looking for an urban artist that is not 'well known' but that we wish to support by guaranteeing them a print run of lets say 50? at a price that makes it worth their while.

I, like many people on here have many 'known' artist prints - however I also like art from people like Dan, Leo, Zanda, Fake, Coach's talented son, etc..... So my suggestion is that we take a number, commit a few pounds and go with an artist that is also on the UAA and contributes to our association.

That we do this not to make money from the print but to support them.... and that perhaps in years to come we can be proud to have helped them reach some place in the art world to which we believe they should be.

If this is the sentiment for this thread then I am 100% in.

Yorkie