Los Angeles-based street artist Thierry Guetta’s first Australian solo exhibition, Perth is Beautiful, has raked in more than $1 million in sales since it opened at Gullotti Galleries last week.
Los Angeles-based street artist Thierry Guetta’s first Australian solo exhibition, Perth is Beautiful, has raked in more than $1 million in sales since it opened at Gullotti Galleries last week.
Thierry Guetta, known as Mr Brainwash, featured in street artist Banksy’s 2011 documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop.
He has collaborated with global organisations including Coca Cola and Lamborghini, raised money for charity with the Pope and Michelle Obama and designed an album cover for Madonna. Some believe he is Banksy.
After opening on Sunday August 8, the gallery has now sold more than $1.06 million worth of Mr Brainwash’s art.
Gullotti Galleries owner Paul Gullotti said the exhibition had made his Cottesloe-based gallery the busiest it had ever been, bringing in between 70 and 100 people per day on weekdays and more than 100 on the weekend.
“This would have to be our best performing exhibition in all my career,” Mr Gullotti told Business News.
While the exhibition is called Perth is Beautiful, Mr Brainwash has never been to the city and instead relied on his research to create the exhibition.
Mr Gullotti said he decided he wanted to bring Mr Brainwash’s work to Perth more than ten years ago after watching Exit Through the Gift Shop.
He contacted Mr Brainwash’s representatives in LA but received no response.
It wasn’t until Mr Gullotti happened to meet Mr Brainwash in Hong Kong that the two got chatting about a potential exhibition.
Five years later, the pair agreed to create a show in Perth.
“It took a lot of persistence and a lot of patience,” Mr Gullotti said.
He said the exhibition had allowed the gallery to show what it could do on an international stage.
“I want to show international artists that there are galleries in, not just Australia, [but] in Perth, in a place that you wouldn’t expect there to be a gallery, that can deliver high quality exhibitions,” Mr Gullotti said.
The exhibition coincided with Gullotti Galleries moving into its new home on Napoleon Street in Cottesloe at the end of June 2022.
It runs until September 19.
