Dax Lasers
The Artist (b. 2020) · 2026 · Poster paint and masking tape on paper
Click to enlarge · Tag and installation views available
Poster paint and masking tape on paper. Fields of amber, rust and violet, crossed by beams of untouched white that were laid down before any colour and never taken off.
The price arrived on a separate sheet and was taped over the lower right of the painting, where it remains. It gives a six, a dollar sign, and a run of zeros that loses discipline about halfway along and continues anyway.
The gallery counted them three times and arrived at three different figures. Sixty billion is the number it is prepared to defend. The surplus zeros have been noted, photographed and set aside for a future work.
Bars use a logarithmic scale; on a linear one, every work below the top three would be invisible. Prices for Lots 001 to 003 are asking, not realised.
| Work | Relative value (log scale) | Price (USD) | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dax LasersThe Artist · asking | 60,000,000,000 | 2026 | |
| Sportscar BoomThe Artist · asking | 90,000,000,000 | 2026 | |
| Untitled No. 1The Artist · asking | 50,000,000,000 | 2026 | |
| Salvator MundiLeonardo da Vinci · Christie’s | 450,300,000 | 2017 | |
| InterchangeWillem de Kooning · private sale | 300,000,000 | 2015 | |
| The Card PlayersPaul Cézanne · private sale | 250,000,000 | 2011 |
Lot 002 contained a vehicle. Lot 003 contains lasers, which are cheaper to depict and, the gallery concedes, considerably harder to place.
The tape went down first — eight or nine lengths, torn rather than cut, crossing the sheet at angles that the artist has described as correct. Everything else followed over the top: yellow, then rust, then a gold that was worked while wet until it dragged, then two bars of violet applied with a loaded brush and left alone. The beams are therefore not painted. They are the paper, protected, and most of the tape that protected them is still there. The tag came last, and covers roughly an eighth of the work.
“They’re lasers. Dax has them.”The artist
“The tape stays on. We have been very clear with everybody about the tape.”Studio representative
“I counted the zeros twice and got two different numbers.”The gallery’s head of valuation
This is to certify that the work described above is an original, unique and wholly unrepeatable creation of the artist; that the tape affixed to its surface is integral and not packaging; and that the lasers belong to Dax, who is not available for comment.
Born in 2020, the artist works at speed from a home studio and paints with both hands, occasionally at the same time. Lot 001 was colour and Lot 002 was a vehicle; Lot 003 is the first in which he has used a tool other than a brush. His representatives are watching the tape situation closely.
Lot 001
Untitled No. 1
$50,000,000,000 · Available
Lot 002
Sportscar Boom
$90,000,000,000 · Available
Lot 003 · Viewing
Dax Lasers
$60,000,000,000 · Available
Serious enquiries only. The artist’s representatives will respond during business hours and before bedtime.
enquiries@jackspaintings.uk