#4 How to find the next big artist before price explodes
From series How to Collect Art
Today, I would like to focus on the series How to Collect Art and the question of
How to find the next big artist before the price explodes, which very well fits into this category. Previously, I’ve written about: What is collecting and how to navigate it, How and where to buy art online, and The collector’s playbook: eight medium and styles to buy now. I would like to address one of the biggest ‘mysteries’ and questions that people often ask me. There is no secret formula or process; if there were, we would all be buying the right artists at the right time. But there is a framework anyone can follow - a word that I think fits for this perfectly, and I would like to give credit to a great article I read recently ‘How to Price the Priceless’, which used the term.
1. What’s the artist’s premise
Every great artist has a premise — a reason their work exists in this moment.
Ask: What is the artist trying to say, and why does it matter now?
Perhaps they’re engaging with pressing social issues, rethinking traditional forms, or inventing new visual languages. Artists who gain traction usually do more than execute skillfully — they articulate an idea, perspective, or emotion that feels both specific and universal.
What you’re looking for is authenticity. Does the work feel like it’s coming from necessity — an internal drive — or is it chasing trends? The next big artist tends to define the conversation, not follow it.
