Justin Gignac: Art Priced Just Like the Real Thing

Posted by Alex in Arts & Crafts on April 7, 2008 at 3:34 pm


A while ago, we wrote about Justin Gignac, who sold New York City garbage as "art." Now, the guy is back, and this time he’s selling something else (but also in the name of art):

He recently teamed up with his girlfriend and "creative director," Christine Santora, on another novel project. They create paintings of items they would like to have — a piece of pizza, a dinner at a nice restaurant, financial security — and sell them for the actual price of the item depicted.

"We definitely are very selective about the things that we paint," Gignac says. "It makes you stop and think, ‘Do I want this video game that badly that I’m going to spend a couple days painting it?’"

They created a Web site, wantsforsale.com, to sell the paintings.

Gignac says he enjoys experimenting with what people are willing to pay.

"People have this kind of preconceived notion of certain things and how much they should be, whether it’s art or how much garbage shouldn’t cost," he says. "I think it’d be great if we have a gallery show at some point to do like a 6-foot-by-8-foot painting of a taco and still charge $1.99 for it, because that’s how much a taco costs."

A painting of "Financial Security" is currently available for $1 million. So far, no takers. Here’s an NPR story by Brad Linder about it: Link (Photo: Nick Zafonte) | Justin’s websiteThanks Brad!


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COMMENT

10 comments to "Justin Gignac: Art Priced Just Like the Real Thing"

  1. bean
    April 7th, 2008 at 6:06 pm

    People like are the reason art has such a terrible reputation. He's like a diluted imitation of Andy Warhol.

  2. CheeseDuck
    April 7th, 2008 at 8:04 pm

    Psh. People would pay millions for a blank canvas.

  3. big spender
    April 7th, 2008 at 8:15 pm

    How much for a 20 dollar bill?

  4. Christophe
    April 7th, 2008 at 11:19 pm

    I hope for him he doesn't paint a house : the market is terrible.

  5. su.wei
    April 8th, 2008 at 2:59 am

    if i paint a phd will someone pay for my grad school education?

  6. Edward
    April 8th, 2008 at 3:23 am

    "Art" does not refer to the item of observation. It is not just in the eye of the beholder. It belongs to the experience that is initiated by the artist and shared by the audience.

    A painting is just an illustration unless it causes the observer to experience something internally. Great art moves everyone who see it.

    While this is not great art, I was moved by the experience of viewing it.

  7. fsmarch
    April 8th, 2008 at 11:52 am

    I like the concept of it. Great idea!

  8. liphttam1
    April 8th, 2008 at 1:47 pm

    Good idea but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

  9. fsmarch
    April 8th, 2008 at 2:38 pm

    I agree.

  10. The Slapster
    April 8th, 2008 at 4:37 pm

    I'll gladly pay him to paint a web browser window that doesn't resize itself to 50% of my normal window, then make me scroll sideways through a whole gallery of paintings. Priceless!


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