Who needs art critics and blue-collar art galleries to showcase the art to be well-known or become the fifth-highest-paid artist auction success in 2020 when there is someone like Pearl Lam by the side? It is none other than Mr Doodle, the British artist from Kent, also known as the Doodleman. His real name, Sam Cox, has been making a splash in the art world since 2017 with his intricate designs, known as ‘graffiti spaghetti’, on Instagram.
Teaming with Pearl Lam
Once Mr. Doodle became a known face after selling 158 works in different public auctions and amassing a wealth of 4.7 million, gatekeepers in the art world were vying to get his attention. All of them wanted to represent the Doodlemen. The scales tipped in favour of Pearl Lam, the powerhouse of China’s art world.
It might come as a surprise that Sam Cox decided to go with an Asian art gallerist to represent his work despite being British, but there is a reason. Both walk against the norm and are truly avant-garde. While Pearl Lam went against her father to pursue a career that apparently didn’t have any future, on the other hand, Brian took a different path in illustration towards the end of his graduation degree in illustration. He started doodling to express himself. For both, art is not only a platform to showcase their passion but also a lifestyle.
Pearl Lam: Embracing the New
It would be hard to find a well-known gallerist to move away from curating conventional art to something new. But Pearl Lam, being a prominent female entrepreneur and a gallerist, recognises talent. The result is teaming with Mr. Doodle and getting the sole right to represent his art.
Mr. Doodle is a true millennial artist whose work goes beyond the typical canvas; instead, any empty space—furniture, walls, clothes, and floors—becomes a space for doodling. The concept was clearly understood by the international gallerist Pearl Lam, and the result was curating his work for Art Basel Hong Kong, where the entire booth was doodled. The result was the creation of an immersive space for the viewers by Pearl Lam and Mr. Doodle.
But the newness doesn’t end here. Pearl Lam, with her eponymous gallery, The Pearl Lam Galleries, and SuperRare debuted Mr. Doodle’s NFT (non-fungible token) artwork, The Living Doodle. There is sound and movement with the doodles that add a new dimension, breathing new life to Mr Doodle’s art form, ‘graffiti spaghetti’.
Lam and Doodleman: Changing the World Together
The purpose of Doodleworld is to create a visual language that can bring happiness and joy to people around the world and a way to get involved with his art. Similarly, the objective of Pearl Lam is to forge a cultural discourse between the East and the West through art. Both of these mavericks have a unifying goal, i.e., using art as a common lingua franca to establish communication across the world, where the homogenous idea of art and culture is removed while accepting diversity.
