No luck with the Banksy auction? Invest in one of these artists instead

Sotheby’s biannual Banksy sale, one of the most mainstream-followed art auctions, opens for bidding today. Whether or not it’s to your taste and budget (certain works are estimated to go for six-figure sums), it inevitably sparks curiosity for the contemporary art economy. For both avid art collectors and those just dipping their toes in, buying art is a quest for acquiring that rare gem – a way to support creative talent and covet something original and meaningful.

So, to mark the occasion, we asked Sara Terzi and Jack Lazenby from the Soho House art team to pick five of the most interesting (and affordable) emerging artists to buy for either your existing collection or as the perfect debut piece for your first.

taylor barnes, Soho House Austin
taylor barnes uses fibre, charcoal and clay to present portraits of Black women that explore themes of race, representation, and visibility. Her practice is inspired by both oral histories and critical writers such as Octavia Butler and bell hooks (like hooks, barnes prefers to spell her name in lowercase as a way to focus on ideas rather identity).

@barnes_artistry__

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Holloway House 
Sula Bermúdez-Silverman is based in New York and was raised in Los Angeles, California. Her art is predominantly sculptural, using various mediums such as insects, found objects, and hair. These sometimes macabre or surreal juxtapositions draw on her personal experiences and speak to broader dynamics of power. Her work interrogates how axes of power such as gender, race and religion inform our cultural history.

@cyber.sula

Nicolò Bruno, Soho House Rome
Italian artist Nicolò Bruno paints tender homoerotic imagery drawn from his own experience and often from a first-person perspective. By showing moments of everyday life, such as observing his partner shave through an open door or looking at his phone while lying on the bed, he aims to normalise societal perception of same-sex couples.

@nicolobruno

Sofie Flinth, Soho House Copenhagen
Copenhagen-based artist Sofie Flinth creates photographic work that presents suggestive scenarios and staged realities, following in the footsteps of Cindy Sherman’s unsettling portraits. In her latest series, When The Sun Sets, family relatives and childhood friends sit in deserted environments away from cities and crowds, transporting the viewer to an eerie and still dimension, where the young women stand still and gaze into the distance.

@sofieflinth

Hannah Lim, Brighton Beach House 
Hannah Lim’s work traverses her British and Singaporean identity engaging with ‘the colonial connotations of the relationship between the East and the West’. In her snuff bottles series, she explores this tension by creating contemporary interpretations of objects that were imitated and commercialised throughout the West under an aesthetic label of chinoiserie, playfully reclaiming cultural motifs and designs.

@_hannahlim_