Do you like street art, but not the street or the people who make it? Do you enjoy the frisson of taboo ideas but are too anxious to share an ironic meme? Do you like KAWS but find him too expensive? Why, meet Slawn, the spray paint kid “taught” in a Lagos skate shop now hailed by Sotheby’s as Nigeria’s top “Instagram Art Sensation”. 

The canvases are too large for Slawn’s naively painted figures. His references – the gallery laughably cites AbEx – don’t stretch beyond a phone’s emoji keyboard. It’s all big tits, big lips, big eyes, sometimes a background squiggle. Risqué if you’ve not seen a Haring. Out of the blue, however, a single canvas has three figures in KKK robes. Perhaps Slawn follows Philip Guston’s socials. 

Street art fans love this stuff because they’re fans. Brands drink up the PR’s identitarian nonsense because it has little manifestation in the work. But with the 23-year-old’s auction record understandingly unimpressive, what’s in it for the dealers?