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Philip Tsiaras, "Desert Storm," 1991 – ("Topologies" series)

Asset value
169.765,5 €
Issue price per Splint
50 €
Total number of Splints
3.260
Investment horizon in years
2 to 4
Return-to-Risk Assessment
7/10
Since launch November ‘24
+4.2%

Main reasons to invest

  • Return Potential📈: An investment of 500 EUR is projected to be worth approximately 1,155 EUR in 4 years.

  • Cost-to-Return Ratio⚖️: After deducting 3.2% in annual total costs (including exit fees), your net return could reach 23.3% per year.

  • Invest in a Rising Star 🌟: Philip Tsiaras's market presence and price trajectory are expanding rapidly, supported by prestigious gallery representation and recent high private and auction sales results.

Description

Valuation Summary 📝
To ensure the competitiveness of the investment, we conducted a thorough verification of the purchase price by analyzing recent gallery transactions and auction results. Our analysis confirmed that the price offered, inclusive of all associated fees, is highly competitive. To estimate the potential ROI, we used the annualized price increase of his paintings from the "Topologies"-series over the past five years (comparable paintings in size & creation year). For our conservative scenario, we assumed the value of the painting would grow at the rate of Swiss inflation, reflecting a defensive approach. In the balanced scenario, we assume a 80% probability of realizing a 20.8% (CAGR of the past 5 years) annual return for the next 4 years. Finally, in the ambitious scenario, we assume an 100% probability of realizing a 20.8% (CAGR of the past 5 years) annual return for the next 4 years.These potential returns over the next four years, in both the balanced and ambitious scenarios, are further enhanced by the 27% discount to the current primary market price for similar-sized paintings of the "Topologies" series at which this painting is offered.

Exit Options at Maturity 🚪
We will manage the exit strategy in collaboration with our expert M&A Arts on behalf of our investors, ensuring the best possible outcome based on market conditions at the time. Depending on the prevailing market situation, the painting will be sold to a private collector or offered as single lot at an auction for contemporary art. An auction is considered if the price has developed to the point where the minimum bid matches the market value and there is high demand for works by the artist. Both options are carefully considered, and we will choose the one that maximizes the return for our investors.

Why Invest in This Category? 🎨
For centuries, art was collected for its cultural, emotional, intellectual, political, and economic value. Investing in a mid-career artist offers a mix of financial potential and personal satisfaction, making it an appealing option for both new and seasoned collectors.

Why Invest in This Asset? 💎
Philip Tsiaras is an accomplished Greek-American artist known for his dynamic and diverse body of work across painting, sculpture, photography, and glass art. Born in 1952 in New Hampshire to Greek immigrant parents, Tsiaras grew up in an environment that celebrated both Greek heritage and American identity, a blend that later influenced his artistic themes and aesthetics. His family immigrated to the United States from Greece shortly after World War II. Tsiaras graduated from Amherst College, where he studied music and comparative literature. He studied alongside Lucas Samaras, the acclaimed American photographer and sculptor, who deeply influenced him and whom he considers a great mentor.

In 1976, he traveled to Greece on a poetry fellowship to translate modern Greek poetry into English. When he returned to the United States in 1978, he began to work with photography, exploring the intersection between verbal and visual representation, a theme that evolved into his well-known “Family Album” series. Since then, Tsiaras has lived and worked in New York City. His work is often characterized by its bold colors, expressive brushwork, and an exploration of human form and identity. His glass sculptures are also notable for their vibrant colors and organic forms, merging ancient techniques with a modern sensibility.

Tsiaras held his first exhibition, “Limbo”, at MoMA PS1 in New York City in 1984. Since then, he has had numerous solo and group shows over the past 40 years, including three exhibitions at the prestigious Venice Biennale. Notably in 2001, his bronze sculpture, “Social Climber”, a 3-meter-high work, was displayed for six months in front of the Grand Canal, where approximately twenty million visitors viewed it. One of Tsiaras’s paintings from the “Topologies” series has been chosen by the prestigious Tate Modern, and the acquisition will be completed by June 2025.

Tsiaras’s works are held in prominent museum collections worldwide, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY), the Guggenheim Museum (NY), the Seattle Art Museum (WA), the Newport Museum of Art (RI), the San Diego Museum of Art (CA), the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (Russia), the Vorres Museum (Greece), and the Mannheimer Kunstverein (Germany).

His work is also included in significant private collections, such as the DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, founded by Greek collector Dakis Joannou; the collection of Mexican collector David Martinez; and the private art collection of the Niarchos family, among others.

He has received several awards and honors, including the New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship.

Tsiaras’s contributions to contemporary art extend beyond his works; he has significantly influenced emerging artists and continues to push the boundaries of medium and technique.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:
  • 2025 - A solo show at this soon-to-be announced prominent gallery is planned for November or December
  • 2024 - "Philip Tsiaras: A Private Selling Exhibition", Sotheby’s, London, UK - All the featured works were from the “Topologies” series, which began in the 1990s.
  • 2024 - “Tsiaras, Poseidon & The Hyperbolic Horse”, The Blender Gallery in collaboration with Varvara Roza Galleries, Glyfada, Greece
  • 2024 - “Philip Tsiaras: Topologies 1990-2023”, Gallery 8 - presented by Varvara Roza Galleries and The Blender Gallery, London, UK
  • 2023 - “Philip Tsiaras: Acqua Antica”, 47 Circles, Athens, Greece
  • 2023 - “The Superdot”, Donopoulos International Fine Arts (DIFA), Thessaloniki, Greece
  • 2022 - "The Return of the Superdot: A Retrospective by Philip Tsiaras", Gallery 8, London, UK
  • 2022 - “Divas”, The Blender Gallery in collaboration with Varvara Roza Galleries, Athens, Greece
  • 2021 - “Alexander the Great: Dot Portraits”, The Blender Gallery in collaboration with Varvara Roza Galleries, Athens, Greece
  • 2021 - “Philip Tsiaras: Superdot”, Gallery 8 - presented by Varvara Roza Galleries and The Blender Gallery, London, UK
  • 2019 - “Philip Tsiaras Artworks”, Desani Studio (Inaugural Gallery Opening), Vouliagmeni, Greece
  • 2019 - “Dot Pop”, HG Contemporary, New York, USA
  • 2018 - “Philip Tsiaras: Crystal Guns”, Gallery Skoufa, Mykonos, Greece
  • 2017 - “Explore the Artworks of Philip Tsiaras”, Amanzoe Resort, Greece
Selected Group Exhibitions:
  • 2022 - "Art on Paper 2022", Donopoulos International Fine Arts, New York, USA
  • 2020 - "Abstract Comparisons: Philip Tsiaras and Dimitri Dallas", The Blender Gallery, Athens, Greece
  • 2019 - "Summer Highlights", HG Contemporary, New York, USA
  • 2018 - “Mark Me: Group Drawing Show”, Cross Contemporary Art, Saugerties, USA
  • 2017 - “Philips Tsiaras meets Picasso, Rauschenberg and Warhol”, HG Contemporary, New York, USA
  • 2017 - “On Paper”, Paris Koh Fine Arts, New York, USA
  • 2017 - “Freeze for Frieze by Moncler”, Featured Participation, London, UK


Our offered painting is from the “Topologies” series — a complex body of Tsiaras’s historic works that encompass over 30 years of artistic development. The paintings are a synthesis of the bold figuration and visceral abstraction in a single painting. During the Gulf War in the early '90s, Tsiaras, who believed the artist is also a chronicler of his time, began painting airplanes inspired by the thousands of flying sorties seen daily.

"I wanted to balance the media chaos on canvas and challenge my own perception of war," he said. What evolved was a painterly language filled with layered information, and mixed with a personal fascination with theoretical mathematics, specifically topology. Loosely put, topology explores continuous deformations of stretching and bending of lines. When connected to art, it intertwines abstract concepts of space, connectivity, and form. They are what Tsiaras calls "my smart paintings."

The Tsiaras “Topologies” begin with a geometric substructure, an underpainting of diamonds, squares, intersecting lines, and orbs. Tsiaras appears to purposely obscure the mythological, exalted subjects—whether an airplane, a head, a vase, or a horse—with rich layers of abstract painting while secretly revealing unexpected objects that emerge to ground the viewer in reality—a hammer, a French curve, a gun, a knife, or a bottle of Coca-Cola. Embedded throughout all the “Topologies” is Tsiaras's gestural handwriting, an intimate illegibility that art critic Donald Kuspit describes as "mysterious calligraphy, not unlike the Kufic writing in Medieval art." Kuspit adds, "In fact, Tsiaras succeeds in giving the objects a specific emotional tone—usually aggressive, but always with a libidinous dimension."

The “Topologies” of Tsiaras are a “Gesamtkunstwerk” spanning more than three decades of continuously evolving, evocative paintings.

This painting, “Desert Storm”, is particularly significant. Not only is it an early work and part of the “Topologies” series, but it has an impressive exhibition history, having been showcased at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Mannheimer Kunstverein in Germany, and the Currier Museum of Art in New Hampshire (USA) . Furthermore, it is closely connected to two major works by Tsiaras: “War Puzzle I”, acquired by Tate Modern, and “War Puzzle II”.

Conclusion 🎯
Our analysis affirms this Philip Tsiaras painting as a competitive and promising investment. The conservative scenario forecasts stable returns aligned with Swiss inflation, while balanced and ambitious scenarios suggest potential annual returns of 25.1% and 36.0%, respectively, based on historical data for comparable works.

Expert

M&A Arts Sàrl

M&A Arts represents the leading edge in art and finance, spearheaded by Asher Edelman, the renowned investor and art collector. With an unparalleled experience and extensive relationships in the art world, M&A Arts offers deep knowledge and expertise in the financial aspects of the art market.

Additional details

Asset ID
5d4289c7-475f-4d90-a6d8-abfe8fd530d9
Name
"Desert Storm" – ("Topologies" series)
Artist
Philip Tsiaras
Publication year
1991
Size
195 x 187 cm
Number of editions
Unique
Signature
Yes, the painting is signed.
Material
Mixed media on canvas

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