Nikki Maloof
Discovery#82
Egon Investment Scores
Liquidity
4/10
How easily works can be bought and sold at auction
Institutional
5/10
Museum collections, biennials, and institutional recognition
Momentum
6/10
Recent price trends, gallery moves, and market buzz
Discovery
0/10
Undervaluation opportunity relative to peer artists
Risk
4/10
Investment risk factors — higher means more volatile
Market Position
- Pricing
- Guidance
- Contact Perrotin for current primary-market pricing on unique paintings.
- Primary Market
- Prices not publicly disclosed — gallery-controlled. Large oils were offered through Nino Mier Gallery (e.g., 'At the Fish Market', 2020, 65x70 in) and now Perrotin on an inquiry basis. Editions/prints available via Exhibition A ('Skunk Hour' print edition of 55; 'Apple Tree' hand-finished series of 20).
- Historical vs Current
- 2021 (auction debut) range: ~$35,000 for major paintings; 2023 range: up to ~$53,000 at auction. Prints/multiples and small works trade much lower (~$4,000). Primary-market gallery pricing for large unique oils is generally higher than secondary results and is not publicly disclosed.
- Work Type Differentiation
- Unique large-scale oils command the highest prices; small canvases, works on paper, and print editions are entry-level.
- Liquidity
- Limited but active secondary market — strong sell-through on the few lots offered (Egon database shows 100% sell-through on recorded 2025 lot). Low annual lot count indicates a primarily primary-market, gallery-controlled artist.
- Comparables
- Comparable to peers introduced to auction in the same Phillips cycles (e.g., Allison Zuckerman, Brandon Landers) during the 2020-2021 new-figuration market surge.
- Collector Base
- Demand driven by contemporary collectors of new figuration; specific named collectors not publicly documented in available sources. International collector reach evidenced by exhibitions in Paris, Tokyo, Milan, Copenhagen.
- Auction History
- Lot Volume
- Artnet lists ~18 auction results / ~20 lots total across paintings, prints/multiples and works on paper; thin annual volume (well under 10 lots/year), characteristic of a gallery-controlled market.
- Auction Debut
- March 2021, Phillips New Now New York — an early auction appearance (a 2017 oil on canvas) sold for $35,280 against a $10,000-15,000 estimate, signaling immediate secondary-market demand.
- Notable Results
Work Date Result Venue Estimate Untitled (2017, oil on canvas, ~62x68 in) March 2021 Sold $35,280 Phillips New Now New York $10,000-15,000 2019 oil on canvas (52x68 in) September 27, 2023 Sold $53,340 (near top recorded result) Phillips New Now New York $30,000-50,000 2020 oil on linen (36x24 in) September 25, 2024 Offered (New Now sale) Phillips New Now New York $10,000-15,000 Inferno 火海 (2021) December 11, 2024 Auction closed Phillips (Hong Kong sale) Chicken and Yellow Plate (2021) June/July 2025 Sold $4,064 (likely a print/multiple or small work, per Egon database) Phillips - Auction Record Estimate
- Approximately $53,340 (Phillips, Sept 2023) appears to be near the artist's auction high for a unique painting; the broad recorded range is roughly $4,000-$53,000.
- Market Position
- Positioned within the cohort of in-demand contemporary figurative/still-life painters who emerged commercially around 2020-2021. Move from mid-tier galleries (Jack Hanley, Nino Mier, The Pit) to Perrotin marks a significant upgrade in market positioning and international reach.
- Investment Outlook
- Positive momentum supported by Perrotin representation and an active international solo-exhibition schedule, but secondary-market record remains modest (under ~$55k). Upside tied to continued institutional validation and price discovery; risk profile reflects a thin auction market.
Institutional Presence
- Upcoming
- Ongoing relationship with Perrotin across New York, Paris and Tokyo spaces suggests continued solo programming into 2026; specific 2026 dates not confirmed in sources.
- Exhibitions
- Solo Selected
Title Date Venue Aspects of Daily Life 10 Sep - 25 Oct 2025 Perrotin, Tokyo Around the Clock 23 Nov 2024 - 25 Jan 2025 (first solo with gallery in Paris) Perrotin, Paris Marais Skunk Hour debut solo exhibition with Perrotin Perrotin, New York Solo exhibition 24 Mar - 7 May 2022 Sorry We're Closed, Brussels, Belgium Nervous Appetite c. 2020 Nino Mier Gallery Loner earlier career Jack Hanley Gallery, New York Solo exhibition earlier career The Pit, Los Angeles - Group Selected
- Tiger Tiger, Salon 94, New YorkImmediate Female, Judith Charles Gallery, New YorkBuying Friends: The Kortman Collection, UICA, Grand Rapids, MI (2014)Diff'rent Strokes, Louis B. James, New YorkPlease Excuse Our Appearance, 247365, New YorkIndependent art fair (8th edition, 2017)
- Publications
- No monograph or catalogue raisonné identified; exhibition texts and gallery publications accompany Perrotin shows.
- Museum Collections
- No museum holdings confirmed via accessible APIs or the searches conducted; major institutional collection placements are not publicly documented in available sources. This is not necessarily a negative indicator as many collections are not API-accessible, but verified museum representation appears limited at this stage.
- Awards and Recognition
- Helen W. Winternitz Award in Painting and Printmaking (Yale)Gloucester Landscape Prize
Career & Biography
- Identity
- Gender
- Female
- Birth Year
- 1985
- Birthplace
- Peoria, Illinois, USA
- Nationality
- American
- Current Location
- South Hadley / Western Massachusetts, USA (previously based in Brooklyn, New York)
- Education
- Bfa
- Bachelor of Fine Art, Indiana University, 2008
- MFA
- Master of Fine Art in Painting and Printmaking, Yale School of Art, 2011
- Career Timeline
- Maloof completed her BFA at Indiana University (2008) and MFA in painting/printmaking at Yale (2011). Through the 2010s she exhibited in group and solo shows in New York (Jack Hanley Gallery, Salon 94, 247365), Chicago (Shane Campbell Gallery) and elsewhere, building a reputation for vividly colored animal subjects and still lifes. Her market accelerated sharply in 2020-2021 with strong gallery demand (Nino Mier, The Pit LA) and an auction debut in 2021. A major career milestone came with her move to international mega-gallery Perrotin, which has staged solo exhibitions for her in New York ('Skunk Hour'), Paris Marais ('Around the Clock', Nov 2024-Jan 2025), and Tokyo ('Aspects of Daily Life', Sep-Oct 2025).
- Studio Practice
- Works primarily in oil on canvas/linen, alongside drawing, collage and printmaking. Known for labor-intensive, richly patterned, high-key color compositions of domestic interiors, dinner tables, leftover food, fish/seafood, and anthropomorphized animals.
- Awards Noted in Bio
- Helen W. Winternitz Award in Painting and Printmaking (Yale)Gloucester Landscape Prize
- Influences and Context
- Maloof cites the tradition of Dutch and Flemish vanitas/still-life painting as a key reference point. Critics situate her work between cartoon/illustration sensibility and the historical language of painting. Contemporaries include other figurative/still-life painters of her generation working with saturated palettes and domestic/animal subjects.
Artistic Profile
- Style
- Vividly colored, high-key figurative painting blending a cartoon/illustrative sensibility with the technical language of traditional still-life painting. Densely patterned, saturated, often tropical palettes.
- Evolution
- Earlier work emphasized jungle/exotic animals and anthropomorphized creatures in tropical settings; recent (2020s) work shifts toward domestic still lifes, dinner tables, seafood and food subjects, deepening engagement with mortality and the vanitas tradition.
- Influences
- Dutch and Flemish still-life and vanitas paintingCartoon/illustration traditions
- Visual Language
- Animals project human emotions; benign subjects carry sinister or theatrical undertones. Recent bodies of work render dinner tables and leftover food in intense color, foregrounding domestic and sensory life.
- Signature Series
- Animal 'portraits' (bats, tigers)Fish/seafood and food still lifesDomestic interior/dinner-table scenes ('Around the Clock', 'Aspects of Daily Life', 'Skunk Hour')
- Themes and Subjects
- Anthropomorphized animals (bats, tigers, monkeys, birds, moths, fish/sardines, swordfish, chickens)
- Still lifes of food — cooked duck, seafood, dinner tables and leftover plates
- Domestic interiors and scenes of everyday life
- Mortality, loneliness, melancholy, anxiety; the familiar vs. the strange (vanitas undertones)
- Movements and Periods
- Contemporary artNew figuration / contemporary figurative paintingContemporary still life / neo-vanitas
- Techniques and Mediums
- Oil on canvas and linen (primary)DrawingCollagePrintmaking and print editions/multiples
Critical Reception
- Critical Reception
- Maloof's drawings and oil paintings have been reviewed favorably, with critics noting that the work 'rewards on multiple levels' beyond its surface of domestic animals and sumptuous patterns, and highlighting the unsettling psychological undercurrent of her anthropomorphized creatures. Her practice has been framed around themes of loneliness, melancholy, mortality, and the tension between the familiar and the strange.
- Publications and Media
- Artforum — exhibition review/listing of her drawings and oil paintings
- ArtReview — 'In Conversation: Nikki Maloof and Mark Rappolt' (Perrotin Tokyo, 2025)
- WWD — feature on her 'Skunk Hour' debut exhibition at Perrotin, New York
- Artsy — editorial coverage of her still lifes and animal portraits
- Maake Magazine — artist feature/interview
- Ocula — artist profile and exhibition coverage
- SayWho — coverage of Perrotin Paris presentation
- Art Historical Positioning
- Positioned within contemporary new figuration and a revival of still-life/vanitas painting; her work is read in dialogue with traditional Dutch and Flemish still-life conventions reinterpreted through a high-key, partly cartoon-inflected contemporary idiom.
Gallery & Representation
- Fair Presence
- Work shown in fair contexts (e.g., Independent, 2017); Perrotin's fair program (Art Basel, Frieze, etc.) provides ongoing international fair exposure.
- Geographic Reach
- International — exhibitions and market activity across New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Brussels, Tokyo, Milan, Copenhagen, and Hong Kong.
- Current Representation
- Tier
- Upgrade to a top international gallery (Perrotin) represents strong validation.
- Primary
- Perrotin — major international gallery with spaces in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Shanghai, Dubai (Tier 1-2). Represents Maloof with active solo programming across multiple cities.
- Representation History
- Trajectory from emerging NYC/LA galleries (Jack Hanley, The Pit) and Nino Mier to flagship representation with Perrotin marks a clear upward gallery progression.
- Prior and Secondary Representation
- Jack Hanley Gallery, New York (long-time earlier representation)The Pit, Los AngelesNino Mier GalleryShane Campbell Gallery, ChicagoSorry We're Closed, Brussels (Belgium)
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