Print Club in Courier

Thank you to ‘Courier’ for featuring Print Club in the article “Wall Street”

The Print Shop

Commercialisation has been a thorny issue among street artists. Despite continued resistance, a broad outlook has taken hold that making money is fine. It’s how you do it that’s of critical importance. The model of print editions for street artists has been led by Banksy and others like Ben Eine, who started out screen printing pieces for Banksy. They first began selling small batches (50-200) of signed prints for paltry sums just over a decade ago. By 2008, one of a print edition of 50 Banksy Kate Moss screen prints sold for £96,000 at auction.

Uzzell-Edwards is among several street artists to have been influenced, ‘You do the maths and realise the money from a print series would pay for a small house.’ says Uzzell-Edwards. ‘I’ve taken that model and run with it. It pays the rent for the gallery space.’ He typically sells a 100-150 edition run, for £200 a piece. Pure Evil, Nelly Duff, Stolen Space, Pictures on Walls and Lazarides are among the most prominent London galleries-cum-retailers specialising in ‘urban art’, where demand from first time buyers for street art print editions has been booming.