Josh Keyes print sale

A nightmare evening yesterday (well, in relative terms).

Over the last few months I’ve been smitten by the work of a north American artist, Josh Keyes, and even managed to get hold of a small limited run screenprint, ‘Magician’s Garden’ through Tiny Showcase. And very lovely it is too.

Small edition screenprints of his work are occasionally sold through the Limited Addiction Gallery website, and a new print premiered there last night.

Something’s happened in the last year or so though – Keyes’ popularity has skyrocketed, and the gallery servers slowed and crashed repeatedly under the weight of several thousand potential buyers all chasing one of the 150 edition print.

And so I sat, from 6pm until midnight, my finger numb from poking F5, crawling slowly through the buying process (when I could get onto the site at all), coming agonisingly close several times only for the gallery site to crash before I’d receive confirmation of purchase.

In the end, of course, I didn’t manage to get the $185 print – and even before the sale’s end, a flipper had advertised and sold a copy on eBay for $800.

Looks like the ‘curse’ of Banksy has struck again. Sigh.

Never mind, though – there’s an unlimited run screenprint of his ‘Weaving’ painting up on Tiny Showcase on 18th March.