The Clarence James Interview - Art Basel 2021

The Clarence James Interview

The Gift Shop Gallery had the pleasure of catching up for a few minutes with the talented Clarence James in early December at Art Basel 2021 here in Miami, Florida.

We discuss his meteoric rise from guerrilla street artist to his works being displayed in the same windows as the works of Jean Michael Basquiat and Kaws at the world renown DTR Modern Galleries.

Clarence James was spotted and picked up by the forward thinking and incredibly successful Ted Vassilev. Through these relationships and the positive reception of his latest collections, Clarence James will enter 2022 with a coveted residency at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in Midtown New York City. In the art world, a residency is a major step forward toward a lasting and influential place in art history.

Clarence sees these opportunities as both logical and linear progression to adding more African-American modern art to the Western Canon based on the work itself - not just what has been High Art’s historic focus on the depiction of African-American bodies by African and African-American artists.

The addition of Clarence James’ work to galleries like DTR Modern also show the growing demand for the raw, organic feel of street art captured inside a gallery frame - a distinct sort of irony.

Art as an investment asset class has always been almost the exclusive sphere of the ultra-wealthy where historically “blue-chip” pieces were the best investments. Today, this paradigm has shifted significantly with many new artists' pieces increasing in value rapidly to levels rarely seen in the past. Some art has seen volatile increases more similar to cryptocurrencies than historically seen in Art or Wine as alternative stores of value.

At the end of the day, Clarence James' main advice to his younger self would be to not worry about growing too big too fast. He recommends to just keep working hard and make sure you promote yourself from the beginning because no one will care about your work if you don’t care about it first.

To learn more, visit www.thegiftshop-gallery.com.