🔥 Merch Turns Market + Tomokazu Matsuyama

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HEY Y’ALL!

Thanks for all the great feedback on the Michael Childress piece I shared last day!

🔥 ICYMI – Catchs from the Last Week:

1. Michael Childress, Aurummm, 2021 - priced at £4,000

2. Russell Young, Marilyn Crying, 2013 - priced at £23,000

3. Luigi Ontani, Artiglio Cartiglio, 1982 - priced at at £11,500

Today we have a Tomokazu Matsuyama that passes the drop test. Editioned like a tee, flipped like a stock, and built for long-haul value. Plus, streetwear collectors, liquid markets, and who’s buying behind the scenes.

-Today’s Catch-

Tomokazu Matsuyama

💭 My 2 Cents: £5,500 for a Matsuyama edition might look tame until you realize you're buying into a brand that’s mid-jump from cult favorite to institutional darling. Daylight Away is peak Matzu: a cultural cocktail of kimono fragments, pop gloss, and just enough philosophical baggage to get a curator nod. Yeah, it's a print—but it's not a throwaway. Hand-finished details, shaped paper, metal leaf. Translation: it's trying very hard not to feel like a print, and honestly? It pulls it off. This is the kind of piece that whispers “I know the game” without screaming for attention.

🔑 Key Numbers: Edition of 100, made in 2021. Signed, COA, sold via Avant Arte. Comparable Matzu paintings sell between $100K–$600K. Auction record sits just north of $640K. The print secondary market is thin but not dead—last few flipped between €6,000–€7,500 in Asia and Europe. Still early days for print comps. Frieze LA 2025? Sold-out booth. Four institutional buys. Game on.

🧠 Why It’s a Smart Pick: If you missed the boat on his large paintings or don’t have a spare quarter mil, this is the accessible on-ramp. It’s got the brand, the look, and the edge. Worst case, you’ll still have a banger on your wall that actually holds weight.

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Here’s what a collector shared with me this week:

Limited spots available—book yours now.

-In a Minute-

🔥 Words I Like: flex-value, resale brain, hype-tested

From Streetwear to Secondary Market

There’s a new class of art being minted in real-time, straight from drop culture.

One minute it’s a T-shirt release with a rapper. The next, it’s a $60K sculpture hanging in Chelsea.

It looks chaotic—but some collectors are already making calculated moves inside the noise.

Think KAWS, Murakami, and the Koons effect.

We’ve seen it before, but the tools are faster now—Instagram, street cred, and pre-built hype cycles.

Some of these drops are starting with a 5-figure price tag and a waitlist.

They’re selling out to a mix of collectors, sneaker flippers, and the art-curious rich.

That blend creates noise—but also liquidity.

And liquidity, when paired with aesthetic consistency, starts to look like a market.

If you’re collecting, ignore the frenzy and watch the infrastructure: gallery backing, museum presence, resale patterns.

Who’s writing about it? Who’s bidding? Who’s consigning? 

Follow the money after the drop. That’s where staying power lives.

The best early buys here won’t be the loudest—they’ll be the ones that evolve beyond logo-brained visuals.

If the work can’t outlive the merch, leave it for the kids with bots and burner wallets.

But if it does? You’re looking at the start of a new value system, where cultural equity turns into long-term financial upside.

There’s opportunity here, but this is not passive collecting.

It’s research, it’s timing, and yeah—sometimes it’s showing up at a party you don’t want to be at just to see who’s buying.

The crossover game is heating up. Watch it, track it, and move early—but smart.

-Whenever You Are Ready-

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See you soon!

-Alvaro (@theartmarketguy)

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Disclaimer

Not financial advice. Frame&Flame is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions.