Maria Kreyn, Plume, 2023

Investment Thesis 📝
 

Metric	Value
Investment Horizon	3–5 Years
Expected CAGR (Balanced)	24.5% p.a. after fees
Optimistic CAGR	33.4% p.a. after fees
Entry Discount	None (priced at gallery retail)
Sharpe Ratio	0.75 (vs. SMI: 0.61)
Value at Risk (VaR)	75% chance to exceed €183,900
Standard Deviation	33.3%
Risk Rating	C (6.8/10 – Moderate Risk)

 

• 3–5 Year Horizon: Targeted exit timing aligns with growing institutional demand and artist visibility.
• 24.5% CAGR (Balanced): Based on 60% probability of repeating observed 46% p.a. gallery price growth (2022–2025).
• 33.4% CAGR (Optimistic): Reflects momentum from top-tier sales and acquisitions by institutions like Harvard University and is based on 80% probability of repeating observed 46% p.a. gallery price growth (2022-2025)
• Priced at Retail: Entry aligns with fair market value, validated by gallery benchmarks for similar works.
• Sharpe Ratio of 0.75: Signals attractive risk-adjusted return potential over and above traditional indices.
• 75% VaR Threshold: Suggests value protection with three-in-four likelihood of exceeding €183,900 over 5 years.
• Standard Deviation (33.3%): Consistent with leading emerging artists like Banksy, suitable for collectors tolerant of moderate volatility.
• Risk Rating “C”: Reflects fair balance of high return prospects and market uncertainty due to emerging auction presence. So far, there has been only one auction result in November 2024 where a painting from the same series fetched GBP 407,759. 

Exit Options at Maturity 🚪

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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 a 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? 🎨

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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? 💎

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Maria Kreyn is an American artist renowned for her evocative oil paintings that blend masterful figuration with abstract geometries and elemental atmospherics. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

Born in 1987 in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, Kreyn grew up in America and only came to painting when she was 20. She first pursued studies in mathematics and philosophy at the University of Chicago in 2008. As she grew frustrated and bored with the academic environment, she moved to Norway to apprentice with a painter. Later, she followed her mentor to Iceland, where she lived and worked in the former public library in Reykjavik.

By the age of 24, she returned to the US with a renewed perspective. She begun creating highly realistic oil paintings that explore human relationships and capture intimate moments of passion and isolation with a distinctly modern sensibility. Kreyn's background in highly refined figurative paintings lends a strong foundation of drawing and representational rendering that permeates and enhances her recent work's abstract marks.

Kreyn's work is deeply rooted in the Western painting tradition, drawing inspiration from Old Masters like Caravaggio and Rembrandt. Her paintings often explore themes of nature, the human body, and the materiality of time, creating hybrid compositions that merge formalism with Romantic sensibilities. Her education in mathematics and philosophy, and her interest in neuroscience and mythology, lead Kreyn to atypical connections between disparate fields.

Her distinctive style has garnered attention in prominent publications such as Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, The Art Newspaper, and The Financial Times.

Among her notable projects is "The Shakespeare Cycle", a series of eight monumental paintings commissioned by Andrew Lloyd Webber in 2021, now permanently displayed in the lobby of London's historic Theatre Royal Drury Lane. Her painting "Alone Together" gained widespread recognition after being featured in Shonda Rhimes' ABC television show "The Catch," and her works have also appeared in the award-winning series "The Crown."

In 2024, Kreyn was featured in a landmark solo exhibition titled "Chronos" during the 60th Venice Biennale, held at St. George’s Anglican Church in Venice. Ten monumental “Storm” paintings, the same series as the painting we are offering, transformed the historic space into something timeless, creating a powerful dialogue between art, time, and place.

Also in 2024, her work appeared at auction for the first time. On November 11, a large painting titled “Gravity” (178 x 229 cm) from the “Storm” series achieved a spectacular result at Sotheby’s Hong Kong, selling for GBP 407,759 (including buyer’s premium)—a price 172% above its high estimate of GBP 149,911.

Kreyn’s work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums across the U.S. and Europe. Her agent is currently in discussions with multiple museums interested in showing her work in 2026, as well as with several prominent international galleries regarding future representation.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:

• 2025 - Fitzrovia Chapel, London (Oct 12 – Upcoming)
• 2024 - “Chronos”, Venice Biennale, St George’s Anglican Church
• 2023 - “Untune A String”, The Hole, Tribeca, New York
• 2023 - “Lensing A Storm”, Secteur Privé, London
• 2021 - “Maria Kreyn: Recent Works”, Hillsdale College, Michigan
• 2021 - “The Shakespeare Cycle”, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London
• 2018 - “Polyphony”, Heist Gallery, London
• 2018 - “How To Become A Cloud”, Fabien Fryns Fine Art, Marbella
• 2017 - “May You Live In Interesting Times”, Booth Gallery, New York

Selected Group Exhibitions:

• 2025 - “The Cloak of Dreams” Carl Kostyàl, Shenzhen, China
• 2025 - “A Mysterious Vision”, Robilant + Voena, New York
• 2024 - “Whose Muse”, Palo Gallery, New York
• 2024 - “Something Woman This Way Comes”, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad
• 2024 - “Zona Maco Art Fair”, The Hole Gallery, Mexico City
• 2024 - “Arcadia and Elsewhere”, James Cohan Gallery, New York
• 2023 - “Femme F(r)ictions”, Colnaghi Gallery, New York
• 2022 - “Influences of Time”, Colnaghi Gallery, New York
• 2022 - “Past Life Regression Portraits”, Spring/Break, New York
• 2019 - “She Persists”, Heist Gallery, Venice Biennale
• 2018 - “Summer of Love”, Freight + Volume, New York
• 2017 - “Figurative Futures”, 101/Exhibit, Los Angeles
• 2017 - “Palette”, Abend Gallery, Denver
• 2017 - “Et Arcadia In Ego”, California Lutheran University
• 2017 - “Psychological Realism”, Booth Gallery, New York
• 2017 - “Bombay Beach Biennale”, California

The “Plume” painting we are offering is part of Maria Kreyn’s latest body of work, the “Storm” series. In this series, Kreyn departs from her established figurative tradition, deliberately omitting the human figure, not as an absence but as an invitation. By placing the landscape at the center, she evokes the sublime, where the beauty of nature merges with its vast and often unsettling power. What distinguishes these landscapes is Kreyn’s nuanced manipulation of geometric space, a technique that introduces a kind of phenomenological codex.

Deeply influenced by the Romantic tradition and Orphic mythology, these paintings are filled with luminous vortexes where geometric forms collide with atmospheric elements, evoking the cosmic cycles of creation, dissolution, and regeneration. These works not only demonstrate Kreyn’s mastery in blending figuration with abstract geometry but also reflect on the broader existential challenges posed by the climate change and the fragility of the human experience.

The series draws direct lineage from her earlier painting “The Tempest”, commissioned by Andrew Lloyd Webber as part of her eight-painting “Shakespeare Cycle”, now on permanent display in the lobby of the historic Theatre Royal Drury Lane in London.

Conclusion 🎯

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Maria Kreyn’s Plume is a singular opportunity—an original from her breakout series, offered before price acceleration outpaces access. With institutional momentum, auction validation, and deep emotional power, this work merges rarity with relevance. A bold, resonant acquisition—poised for both capital growth and cultural permanence.