Justin Gignac: Art Priced Just Like the Real Thing

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 website – Thanks Brad!