Amy Sillman
Blue-chipEgon research · Artist market profile
The market, in context.
Explore Amy Sillman’s auction history alongside the exhibitions, collections and gallery relationships behind the market.
Institutional research
Collections & exhibitions
Read holdings, exhibition history and their qualifications in context.
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Egon investment scores
Market position
Research updated
Recent auction highlight
A result from Egon’s tracked auction sales; historical auction records are researched separately. Price including buyer’s premium.
Auction highlights
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Work | Result | Venue and date |
|---|---|---|
| Flower Face (1994) | $17,780 | Sotheby's, October 2025 |
| Untitled | $12,065 | Phillips, June 2025 |
| Untitled | $20,320 | Phillips, February 2025 |
Pricing
- 2020 2024
- Building momentum with works in $10,000-$100,000 range
- 2025 current
- Consolidating at $6,000-$20,000 for smaller works, major paintings command six figures
- Primary market
- Contact David Zwirner for current pricing - gallery move signals upward trajectory
- 2023 breakthrough
- First work over $900,000 establishing new price ceiling
Auction history
- Date
- November 2023
- Work
- Junker 1
- Estimate
- $400,000-600,000
- Amount USD
- $984,250
- Performance
- Exceeded high estimate
- Year created
- 2009-2010
- Auction house
- Sotheby's New York
Previous record
- Year
- 2021
- Notes
- Record broken in 2023
- Amount USD
- $870,000
Alternative record cited
- Work
- U (2008)
- Notes
- Cited by Ocula as auction record, may be same or earlier sale
- Amount USD
- $855,000
Recent auction performance
- Lots sold
- 5
- Database period
- 2025-onward (partial data)
- Price range USD
- $6,350 - $20,320
- Sell through rate
- 100%
- Average hammer USD
- 13367
Market position
Market positioning
- Liquidity
- Moderate to good - works appear regularly at major auction houses
- Collector base
- Institutional collectors, sophisticated private collectors focused on contemporary painting
- Geographic markets
- Strong in US and Europe, particularly New York, London, Berlin
- Secondary market activity
- Active with consistent auction presence
Broader market context
- Market segment
- Six-figure artist with growing blue-chip positioning
- Price range all time
- $46 - $984,250 USD
- Annual lots sold recent
- 55 lots
- Average price 12 months
- $68,657 USD
- Historical sell through 36 months
- 33.3%
Institutional presence
Research updated
Exhibitions
- Year
- 2014
- Event
- Whitney Biennial
- Works
- Mother (painting), Fells (collaborative sculpture with Pam Lins)
- Year
- 2022
- Event
- 59th Venice Biennale: The Milk of Dreams
- Curator
- Cecilia Alemani
- Description
- Comprehensive presentation of paintings on paper
- Year
- 2000
- Event
- Greater New York
- Venue
- PS1
Amy Sillman: one lump or two
- Year
- 2013
- Venue
- Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
- Curator
- Helen Molesworth
- Traveled
- Aspen Art Museum, Hessel Museum of Art Bard College (2014)
- Significance
- First major museum survey
Directions, Amy Sillman: Third Person Singular
- Year
- 2008
- Venue
- Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC
- Traveled
- Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College
- Co organizer
- Smithsonian Institution
View 7 more records
Amy Sillman: Oh, Clock!
- Year
- 2024
- Venue
- Kunstmuseum Bern
- Traveled
- Ludwig Forum Aachen (2025)
- Significance
- First major institutional solo exhibition in Europe
Artist's Choice: Amy Sillman—The Shape of Shape
- Year
- 2019-2020
- Venue
- Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
- Significance
- Curated installation from MoMA collection, 14th artist in prestigious series
- Year
- 2015-2016
- Venue
- Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria
- Year
- 2016
- Venue
- Portikus, Frankfurt am Main
After Metamorphoses
- Year
- 2017
- Venue
- The Drawing Center, New York
- Traveled
- Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Landline
- Year
- 2018
- Venue
- Camden Arts Centre, London
Alternate Side (Permutations #1–32)
- Year
- June 2025 - May 2026
- Venue
- Dia Bridgehampton
- Significance
- Major site-specific installation
Museum collections
Curatorial projects
Artist's Choice: The Shape of Shape
- Year
- 2019
- Venue
- MoMA
- Description
- 75 works from MoMA collection focused on shape in modern art
- Year
- 2008
- Venue
- Hammer Museum
- Year
- 2005
- Venue
- Artists Space
Awards and recognition
Awards and honors
Scroll horizontally if needed →
| Year | Award |
|---|---|
| 2001 | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in Painting |
| 1999 | Joan Mitchell Foundation Fellowship |
| 1999 | Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award |
| 1999 | Pollock-Krasner Foundation Fellowship |
| 2009 | Guna S. Mundheim Fellowship in the Visual Arts (American Academy in Berlin) |
| 2012 | Asher B. Durand Award |
| 2014 | Charles Flint Kellogg Award in Arts and Letters |
| 2024 | Yaddo Artist Medal |
| 2020 | Election to American Academy of Arts and Letters |
| 1995 | National Endowment for the Arts |
Career & Biography
Research updated
Career
- Period
- 1970s
Description
Early formative experiences including work in Alaska cannery, feminist silkscreen factory in Chicago, training as Japanese interpreter at NYU, involvement with feminist journal Heresies
- Period
- 1979-1995
- Description
- Post-BFA period focused on learning, working as assistant to Pat Steir, participating in downtown feminist and counterculture movements
- Period
- Mid-1990s-2000s
- Description
- Began gaining attention with solo exhibitions at Lipton Owens Company, Casey Kaplan, Brent Sikkema (later Sikkema Jenkins)
- Period
- 1997-2013
- Description
- Teaching at Bard College MFA painting program, serving as chair of painting department (2002-2013)
- Period
- 2014-2019
- Description
- Professor of Fine Arts at Städelschule, Frankfurt, Germany
- Period
- 2013-present
- Description
- Major institutional recognition with museum survey 'one lump or two' and subsequent international exhibitions
Identity
- Birth location
- Detroit, Michigan, USA
- Current location
- New York, USA
Professional roles
- Painter
- Draftsperson
- Writer/Art Critic
- Curator
- Educator
- Zine-maker
- Animator
Artistic context
Artistic influences
- Philip Guston
- Willem de Kooning
- Abstract Expressionism (critically engaging rather than emulating)
- New York School
- Eva Hesse
- Louise Bourgeois
- Maria Lassnig
- Downtown feminist and counterculture movements of 1970s-80s NYC
Artistic Profile
Research updated
Themes and subjects
Formal
- Abstraction-figuration oscillation
- Shape as primary concern
- Color as material
- Process and revision as content
- Time-based approach to painting
Conceptual
- Doubt and unknowability
- Awkwardness and humor
- Feminist critique of mastery and genius
- Body as abstraction
- Contradiction and dialectics
- Non-linguistic thinking
Psychological
- Intimate relationships and coupling
- Awkward feelings and affect
- Self-deprecation
- Vulnerability in mark-making
Movements and periods
Distinctive characteristics
- Touch
- Equally tender and ruthless
- Affect
- Playful yet serious, humorous yet anxious, awkward yet prowess-filled
- Composition
- Film noir slants, scaffolds, orthogonal plunges, eccentric shapes
- Color palette
- Vivid, often surprising - key lime greens, riotous reds and pinks, acidic tones
- Visual language
- Hybrid, idiosyncratic imagery that resists categorization
Techniques and mediums
Drawing
- Core of practice
- Sequential, film-like progressions
- iPad and iPhone applications
- Cartoonish idiom with economy of mark-making
- Watercolor washes and bold black line
Painting
- Accumulation and redaction of innumerable layers
- Constructive erasure and 'unpainting'
- Use of rags, trowels, scrapers instead of brushes
- Oil and acrylic combined on single canvas
- Silkscreen integration with painting
Mixed media
- Zine-making (The O-G series)
- Digital animation
- Installation strategies
- Collage and printmaking
Critical Reception
Research updated
Critical reception
Writing by artist
- Regular contributor to Artforum, Texte zur Kunst, Bomb Magazine, The Washington Post
- Essays on John Chamberlain, Eugène Delacroix, Rachel Harrison, Laura Owens, Nicole Eisenman
- Defense of Abstract Expressionism ('Ab-Ex and Disco Balls' 2011)
- Known for intelligent, witty art criticism
Critical positioning
- Discourse
- Central to contemporary conversations about painting's relevance, abstraction vs figuration debates
- Influence
- Described as 'artist's artist' with strong influence on peers and younger painters
- Recognition
- Widely recognized as one of most significant painters of her generation
- Scholarly attention
- Subject of major critical essays and catalogue contributions
Significant reviews and articles
- Date
- February 2007
- Author
- Linda Norden
- Description
- Major essay 'The Elephant in the Painting' discussing fearless pursuit of painting that registers discomfort and absurdity
- Publication
- Artforum
- Date
- September 2024
- Quote
- If painting is really drawing, then her drawing is really animation, and her animation is really painting
- Author
- Barry Schwabsky
- Publication
- Artforum
- Author
- Helen Molesworth
- Context
- Curator essay
- Description
- Deemed Sillman's approach exemplary of virtuous 'unknowability' and feminist ethos countering mastery and power
- Author
- Roberta Smith
- Context
- MoMA Shape of Shape exhibition
- Description
- Praised show's 'robust visual appetite' addressing fear of painting, color and form
- Publication
- New York Times
- Date
- February 2018
- Author
- Phyllis Tuchman
- Context
- Review of 'Mostly Drawing' at Gladstone
- Description
- Called show 'a thrilling, rollercoaster-like experience'
- Publication
- ARTnews
- Date
- 2006
- Quote
- Paintings mine the edges of abstraction, meshing patches of color with bursts of chaotic line
- Author
- Jan Avgikos
- Publication
- Artforum
Publications and media
Major publications
Amy Sillman: Faux Pas
- Year
- 2020
- Publisher
- After 8 Books
- Description
- Collection of artist's writings, republished in expanded and foreign language editions
Gallery & Representation
Research updated
Fair presence
- Recent
- Works shown at FIAC, Frieze Week exhibitions
- History
- Regular participation at major art fairs including Art Basel, Frieze
Representation
Previous representation
Gladstone Gallery
- Period
- Through 2025
Locations
- New York
- Brussels
- Notable exhibitions
- Mostly Drawing (2018), To Be Other-Wise (2024)
Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
- Period
- Early 2000s
- Location
- New York
- Significance
- Important early career representation
Casey Kaplan
- Period
- Mid-1990s
- Location
- New York
Gallery move significance
- To
- David Zwirner
- Date
- January 2026
- From
- Gladstone Gallery
- Market signal
- Strong institutional validation and blue-chip positioning
- Collector impact
- Significant confidence boost, expected price increases for primary market works
- Institutional backing
- David Zwirner praised work as 'endlessly intelligent' with 'remarkable ability to mine entire history of medium'
Current primary representation
David Zwirner
- Tier
- Tier 1
- Since
- January 2026
Locations
- New York
- Los Angeles
- London
- Paris
- Hong Kong
- Significance
- Major blue-chip mega-gallery move, significant career milestone
- First exhibition
- 2027 in New York
Thomas Dane Gallery
- Tier
- Tier 2
- Status
- Ongoing relationship
- Location
- London
Capitain Petzel
- Tier
- Tier 2
- Status
- Ongoing relationship
- Location
- Berlin
Sources & research notes
Egon’s artist research combines historical auction records, recent sales, institutional history, critical reception and gallery information. Researched auction records and auction highlights are identified separately.
Read prices with their work, sale date, currency and stated basis. Egon’s market assessments are distinct from reported auction results.
Reference: Egon, “Amy Sillman: Market Intelligence & Investment Profile.”
Research updates by section
These dates show when Egon’s research sections were updated. Source retrieval dates, where supplied above, refer to individual evidence notes.
Ranking updated . Research sections follow their own update dates.
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