The Works I'd Fight For This Week
From velvet word paintings to rhinestone portraits — a collector's-eye tour of February's auctions
There's something intimate about watching an auction clock tick down.
It's part theater, part strategy, part self-interrogation. What would I live with? What would I fight for? What belongs in the story I'm building around myself?
This week, between Artnet's Contemporary and Select Photographs sales and Phillips' Modern & Contemporary auction in New York, the conversation feels sharp: language, power, glamour, fragmentation, memory.
Below, the works that caught my eye — and why.
Artnet
Contemporary Art (Live through February 19, 2026)
Mel Bochner
Kvetch, Kvetch, Kvetch, 2014 Oil on velvet Estimate: $15,000–20,000
Why I like it: Bochner makes language feel physical. "Kvetch" — to complain, to nag, to persist — becomes texture. On velvet, no less. There's humor here, but also bite. Conceptual art that doesn't hide behind theory. It's direct, self-aware, and in 2026, when everyone has an opinion, a painting about complaining feels oddly timeless.
With Bochner's recent passing, his works have started to grow within the market not just in value, but as a cornerstone of many collections. Walking through art fairs, you'd be hard-pressed to find a top secondary market specialist without one. To me, it's playful, impactful, and IN YOUR FACE (which I love).
Rammellzee
H Signoverture, 1984 Spray paint, mixed media collage on unstretched canvas Estimate: $9,000–12,000 Auction House: Artnet
Why I like it: Rammellzee didn't just paint graffiti — he built a theory around language as warfare. His "Gothic Futurism" reframed letters as armored soldiers. This is early, raw, intellectual street energy. Before "street art" became a design aesthetic, it was ideology. You feel that here.
Further reading— check out Jeffrey Deitch's page on the artist. In 2021 Deitch announced the representation of the artist's estate.
Artnet
Select Photographs (Live through February 25, 2026)
Barbara Kruger
Untitled (Lust), 2001 Cibachrome, edition of 10 Estimate: $80,000–100,000
Why I like it: Kruger's work is still devastating. Red. White. Black. Direct address. She understood branding before Instagram did. "Lust" isn't just about desire — it's about systems that manufacture it. Large scale. Edition of 10. Institutional presence. This is a museum-weight photograph that also lives like a billboard in your home.
Mickalene Thomas
Afro Goddess with Hand Between Legs, 2006 Chromogenic print, edition 3/6 Estimate: $12,000–18,000 Auction House: Artnet
Why I like it: Thomas reclaims glamour as power. The pose is confrontational, controlled, and rooted in art history — but rewritten through Black female agency. Early work. Small edition. Manageable scale. It feels like an entry point into a much larger institutional conversation.
Marilyn Minter
Sparks, 2002 Chromogenic print Estimate: $15,000–20,000 Auction House: Artnet
Why I like it: Minter makes excess look intellectual. Gloss, glitter, seduction — but slightly off. It's the psychology of beauty. This isn't decoration; it's critique wrapped in allure. And it still feels contemporary twenty years later.
Henri Cartier-Bresson
Henri Matisse, Vence, 1944 Gelatin silver print Estimate: $8,000–12,000 Auction House: Artnet
Why I like it: One master photographing another. It's lineage made visible. Cartier-Bresson's "decisive moment" meets Matisse's late-career quiet. For under $12K, you're buying into 20th-century mythology — and the intimacy of an artist at work.
Phillips
Modern & Contemporary Art
New York — Begins February 28, 2026
Manolo Valdés
Reina Mariana, 1992 Wood sculpture Estimate: $250,000–350,000 Auction House: Phillips
Why I like it: Valdés pulls Velázquez into three dimensions and strips away identity. No face. Just silhouette and material. It's history without nostalgia. Monumental, but warm because of the wood grain. A sculpture that feels both royal and human.
Deborah Roberts
Grillz: not on me #2, 2017 Mixed media collage Estimate: $7,000–10,000
Why I like it: Roberts confronts the construction of Black identity — childhood, adornment, projection. The scale is intimate; the impact is not. At this estimate, it feels like a strategic buy into a major institutional career.
Mickalene Thomas
Hair Portrait #2, 2012 Rhinestones, acrylic, enamel on panel Estimate: $20,000–30,000
Why I like it: Thomas in full rhinestone mode. Glamour as labor. Surface as politics. These works sit between painting and object — they shimmer physically. In a neutral interior, this would command the entire room.
Roby Dwi Antono
Telinga, 2018 Oil on canvas Estimate: $25,000–35,000
Why I like it: Whimsical, eerie, technically refined. Antono merges Renaissance sweetness with pop-surreal strangeness. It feels global — not geographically tied to New York or London, but circulating in a broader contemporary imagination.
Li Tianbing
Rêve Tiananmen, 2010 Oil on canvas Estimate: $10,000–15,000
Why I like it: Massive scale. Political undertones. Dream logic layered over history. Li Tianbing paints memory as distortion. For the square footage and conceptual weight, this estimate feels conservative.
What This Week Says About Taste
Language. Identity. Glamour. Reframed history.
Collectors aren't just buying pretty things right now. They're buying position. They're buying cultural literacy. They're buying works that say: I understand where this came from — and where it's going.
If I had to choose one from each sale?
- Bochner for wit.
- Kruger for scale and authority.
- Valdés for monumentality.
- Roberts for institutional trajectory.
Auctions are mirrors. The question is never just "What will this sell for?"
It's: Who do you become by living with it?
Let me know what you think of this week's market roundup in the comments below.
