The next big thing? Collectors fight over art student's sculptures

 

Charles Saatchi, Lady Vicky Conran and David Roberts were all in attendance at the Royal College of Art's recent fine art degree show.

All three are hugely knowledgeable and influential collectors, who have had a big impact on the British and global art scene in recent years.

The show is the yearly opportunity for students at the renowned London post-graduate institution to display their work, and hopefully catch the eye of collectors and alternative investors who more commonly scour auctions and the private markets for their pieces.

Alumni to have gone on to global fame include David Hockney, Tracey Emin and Ridley Scott, and one student from this year's show who could join this illustrious company is Jackson Sprague.

His painted plaster sculptures, priced between £700 and £1,700, sold out, with David Roberts particularly enamoured with the pieces, according to UK newspaper The Telegraph.

Roberts owns works by celebrated British artists such as Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Grayson Perry.


A detail from a Jackson Sprague work

Sprague learned his trade at Goldsmiths College.

He graduated from the south London university with a degree in Fine Art and Contemporary Critical Studies in 2004 and is following in a strong line of former Goldsmiths College students to make a name for themselves in the art world.

The college counts Hirst, Emin as well as Antony Gormley among its alumni.

In all, £85,000 of students' work sold at the event, clear evidence that collectors have great confidence in the talent emerging from the Royal College. Paintings were especially popular with buyers.

The exhibition was held at the Royal College's new campus in Battersea, which has been developed with help from the £9m sale of a Francis Bacon work.

 

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