Painter Lucy Bull Joins Hauser & Wirth as Her Market Continues Its Ascent

Lucy Bull, one of the most sought-after young painters, has joined Hauser & Wirth, a mega-gallery with 16 spaces spread across three continents. She will continue to be represented by the Los Angeles– and New York–based David Kordansky Gallery, which has shown her since 2021.

Bull produces vibrantly colored abstractions that can at times resemble fantastical beings moving through voids. These paintings often involve frottage and automatic techniques—both of which are associated with Surrealist art of the early and mid-20th century—and they are typically produced by Bull over extended periods of time.

Some of her paintings are monumentally scaled. One produced for the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, which mounted an exhibition of her work in 2024, featured a 39-foot-long painting that extended across multiple floors of the museum.

In addition to her art, Bull manages an itinerant project called From the Desk of Lucy Bull that has staged exhibitions in Los Angeles and New York.

Bull’s work has gained wider notice because of her ascendant secondary market. In 2024, her auction record was set at $2.4 million, putting her among the stars of a category that market observers frequently call “ultra-contemporary.” Though no painting by her has achieved a similar result since, one work sold in 2025 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $1.55 million, more than three times its estimate.

The next big market test for Bull’s work will come at Art Basel Paris next month, where Hauser & Wirth will display a new painting by the artist. In June 2027, around the time of Art Basel’s Swiss flagship edition, the gallery will mount a solo show for Bull in Zurich. Both presentations suggest that the gallery believes Bull’s market remains strong, even though some observers have claimed the ultra-contemporary category is facing a cool-down period from its height during the period after Covid restrictions were lifted.

“Lucy Bull’s work derives from, and provokes, sustained looking, questioning and, ultimately, wonder,” Hauser & Wirth president Marc Payot said in a statement. “She combines technical rigor and formal rulelessness, making an optically hypnotic art that simply refuses to tell you what it’s about or what it intends—she invites you to find yourself within it, which is a veritable miracle in an age when over-abundant information too often short-circuits our thoughts. Lucy is part of a mystical lineage.”

Bull is now one of the youngest artists represented by Hauser & Wirth, whose roster includes Firelei Báez, George Condo, Rashid Johnson, Cindy Sherman, and many other well-known figures.