[dropcap style=”font-size:100px;color:#992211;”]W[/dropcap]orks by some of the world’s leading street artists including Banksy and Shepard Fairey will go under the hammer in Melbourne this weekend as part of a fundraising charity auction for bushfire relief.
The Bushfire Relief Auction is the brainchild of the prominent Australian street art collectors and philanthropic duo Sandra Powell and Andrew King, (collectively known as Sandrew) who have assembled almost 100 works of art from some of the biggest names in global street art to raise money for the Victorian Bushfire Appeal.
As well as Banksy and Shepard Fairey, the Bushfire Relief Auction includes works by Swoon and Ron English and leading Australian exponents Rone, Anthony Lister and Dabs Myla. With items ranging from A$400 (£200) to A$150,000 (£77,000), Powell and King hope the calibre of work on offer will raise upwards of A$500,000 (£258,000) over the weekend.
The couple, who have one of the largest street art collections in Australia, have contributed one work to the cause: Banksy’s Weston Super Mare (2003). “To me, the man with his back turned away to impending disaster is an excellent metaphor for how many policy-makers ignore the obvious reality of climate change,” says King.
• The Bushfire Relief Auction, Saturday 16 February, Leonard Joel Auctions, Melbourne, Australia
Source: The Art Newspaper
Naila Scargill is the publisher and editor of horror journal Exquisite Terror. Holding a broad editorial background, she has worked with an eclectic variety of content, ranging from film and the counterculture, to political news and finance.
