J02. Banksy
An original Banksy would one day, consolidate our business future. It’s ironic, or a happy coincidence that it happened in 2003, Texture Creative’s foundation year.
Yeah, I know – you don’t sell art. Particularly an OG Banksy – but in this instance, the sale of this piece kick-started what would be the full-time operation of TXTR Studio.
It was after one of the Semi Permanent convention days in Sydney, 2003. As people streamed out of the convention hall, there was a guy standing in the middle of the foyer area with about half a dozen prints on the floor. I knew, of course, that they were Banksy originals (Banksy was part of an amazing Semi Permanent curated exhibition of contemporary street artists/graffiti writers of the time) so I casually said hello and checked out the works. Of the few that were there, I noticed that only one of the pictures was signed, numbered and stamped so, I chose that print – ‘Rude Copper’. It was roughly A2 in size and it cost me $25.
Fast forward to 2016 and my wife, business partner and knower of all things right, Nat sat down with me and together we made the call to go full tilt with Texture. We were all-in. To raise the capital, we decided to sell the Rude Copper. Now, don’t get me wrong – I am fully aware that one day this thing could buy houses for our kids (maybe that’s a stretch), but we felt so passionately about where we were heading, we started the process. It was fascinating. We started by finding a dealer that facilitated the sale of Banksy works (amongst other artists) – in this instance, he was located in the UK. After a few conversations and emails, we were instructed to submit our photos of the piece to the Pest Control Office – a website that (I assume) has humans at the end of it who can authenticate submitted works.
Bang! It was real. We negotiated price, shipped the work, got paid and the rest is history. Since then we’ve never looked back. We invested in, and backed ourselves. Now, five years later we’re still here, planning growth. Planning the next chapter of our creative independence. Planning the future of TXTR thanks to Banksy.