«GOOD BUSINESS IS THE BEST ART»

Kour Pour, a 26-year-old Los Angeles painter, is such a hot prospect in the art world that his first solo exhibition sold out even before the show opened last month in New York. Buyers snapped up all seven of Pour’s 8-foot-tall canvases, which depict Persian rugs and were priced at $15,000, according to Joel Mesler, co-owner of the Untitled Gallery, where the show runs through Feb. 23. Mesler says he received unsolicited offers from buyers willing to pay significantly more. “There’s a tremendous amount of speculation in the market right now, particularly for emerging artists,” says Todd Levin, director of the New York-based Levin Art Group, who has advised collectors for more than 25 years. “It is more ferocious than it’s ever been.”

-Bloomberg Business Week