Andy Devaney
Lincoln Townley has done something that makes the traditional art world sit up, spill its flat white, and check its Wi-Fi connection: the British artist launched a new online shop and shifted £100,000 worth of works in less than sixty minutes. Thirty pieces—sketches and preliminary drawings from an upcoming show—went live, and then promptly disappeared into collectors’ hands before most people had even finished deciding which password they’d forgotten.
Townley, London-born and globally recognised for dramatic figurative work and his ICONS collection, designed the drop with a wider audience in mind: lower financial entry points, faster access, fewer velvet ropes. Prices ranged from £650 to £13,500, a different universe entirely from the rarified air where his originals typically sit—between £350,000 and £1 million—and it is hard not to notice the strategy: broaden the base without diluting the brand.
As the artist himself put it: “My online shop was designed to open my studio up to the world. It’s essential for artists in genres to expand sales using the biggest middleman on earth, the internet! With the closing of many galleries, artists need to embrace technology to grow their business and reach more collectors. We have been planning this online platform for a year and it’s now proving to be one of the best things I’ve done.”
A Fast Sell-Out, and a Not-So-Subtle Message
The sale wasn’t a one-off novelty. The offering included unique prints, head studies, drawings, Polaroid’s, stencils and collectable signed books—art-world ephemera with a collector’s pulse—each tied to Townley’s new body of work: UNIVERSE. The title is doing a lot of heavy lifting, and from the early signs, it’s carrying it comfortably.
If the online shop was the spark, the main event is the exhibition: a £20 million collection comprised of original oil paintings and embellished prints, taking over the whole of Gallery 5 at Saatchi Gallery on the King’s Road, Chelsea this September. UNIVERSE, we’re told, is ten pictures created over the last eighteen months, exploring success and the business of making your own reality. Lofty, sure—but the market tends to like artists who back ambition with outcomes, and Lincoln Townley has been doing plenty of that.
There’s also a pointed edge to the timing. This isn’t simply “online convenience”; it’s positioned as a backlash against the traditional upmarket gallery model—exclusive, slow, and increasingly out of step with a world where collectors can buy, sell, and research with a thumb scroll.
UNIVERSE: The Next Chapter After Crypto and Sold-Out Shows
Townley’s recent history reads like an artist who has stopped waiting for permission. The hope is that UNIVERSE will mirror the success of his Behind The Mask La Biennale Collection and his Greed collection at Saatchi, which reportedly sold one month before opening for 490 Bitcoin. Whether you love that sentence or loathe it, you cannot pretend it isn’t modern collecting in a nutshell: attention, scarcity, and the confidence to sell outside the old routes.
And then there is the property play. Townley recently unveiled a £7 million Chelsea penthouse intended to function as the world’s first exclusive apartment to view his work—an intimate, controlled environment that replaces the usual gallery churn with something closer to a private salon.
At the time, Townley explained the thinking like this: “I’ve designed 19 as a place to live with my art. Investors and art collectors can really appreciate my work before they commit to buying. The apartment was chosen specifically because of its close proximity to so many of my clients as well as offering an exclusive service to overseas clients coming to the capital to buy my work. I want them to experience the work in an environment which complements the work rather than in a hostile gallery which is designed for many artists and not just one.
“This is a truly unique way to sell art, a world’s first and I am a big believer than no one can sell my art better than I can. I do have works with some galleries but I am not exclusive to anyone and I’ve always explored alternate markets such as the crypto world and sales generated via social media and online.”
That is the thesis. The online shop is the proof-of-concept, now stress-tested in public—and it passed.
From “Relatively Unknown” to £1 Million Works
What makes the Lincoln Townley story sticky is the speed. We’re told his rise has taken him from eight years ago to today, where work sells for up to £1 million. He has also been commissioned to paint major names—Charlie Sheen, Al Pacino, Sir Michael Caine—and has exhibited original oil paintings of demons drawn from the unconscious mind at major international galleries including the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, Los Angeles and the Brisbane Powerhouse.
His celebrity portrait list runs deep: Dame Judi Dench, John Cleese, Kate Moss, Russell Brand, Leonardo Di Caprio, Marlon Brando, Princess Diana, Mohammed Ali, David Bowie, Pele, Ronaldinho, among others. The BAFTA connection is a recurring lane too: the internationally successful artist was chosen for the fifth year in succession to paint the BAFTA honourees, with names spanning Kenneth Branagh, Matt Damon, Ava DuVernay, Claire Foy, Dick Van Dyke, Jodie Foster, Ricky Gervais, Samuel L. Jackson, Felicity Jones, Ang Lee, and Ewan McGregor. The previous year he painted Orlando Bloom, James Corden, Harrison Ford, Sam Mendes, Amy Schumer and Meryl Streep.
And when Townley presented Sir Michael Caine with a portrait of the actor and his wife Shakira, the endorsement landed with the subtlety of a drum solo: “There’s no doubt in my opinion that Lincoln is the next Andy Warhol.”
The Diana Record and the Economics of Spectacle
In a market that rewards narrative almost as much as technique, Townley has supplied both. Last year he sold a diamond-encrusted portrait of Princess Diana for a personal record-breaking £1 million, beating a previous record of £510,000 set by his painting of Mohammed Ali. The Diana piece—two metres square, oil and acrylic spray on linen—reportedly carried over £100,000 worth of diamonds embedded into the canvas.
This is not quiet art. It is art that understands the camera, the collector, and the headline. And when an artist can drive attention and transact at pace, institutions tend to follow rather than lead.
What the Market Thinks: Maddox Gallery Weighs In
From the dealer side, there’s no shortage of confidence either. James Nicholls, Managing Director and Curator of the Maddox Gallery, Mayfair, London, said: “In each generation it is a rare occurrence when an artist has the potential to become iconic, and it is our considered opinion that Lincoln Townley is such an extraordinary artist.
The British artist was relatively unknown four years ago, now he has become famous for creating the most vivid insight into producing electrifying portraits of Hollywood stars such as; Al Pacino, Dame Judi Dench, Gary Oldman, Sir John Hurt, Robert Downey Jr. Judi Dench, Russell Brand and Charlie Sheen.
“Sir Michael Caine recently described him as the new Andy Warhol, and others see a Francis Bacon-like quality in his work. The value of his work has risen 200% in the last two years alone.”
That last line—value up 200% in two years—is the sort of statement that collectors remember, whether they admit it or not.
The Real Story Here Isn’t Just the Sell-Out
The punchline isn’t that Lincoln Townley sold £100,000 quickly online. Plenty of people can sell something fast if they discount it enough. The point is he sold out while reinforcing a premium narrative: scarcity, access, and a larger flagship show imminent at Saatchi.
Old-school galleries were built to control supply and status. Townley is effectively doing the same thing—only faster, broader, and on his own terms. If UNIVERSE lands the way the early signals suggest, September at Saatchi won’t just be an exhibition. It’ll be a statement about who gets to decide what “the art world” looks like now.
FAQs
Q: What did Lincoln Townley sell in his online shop?
A: Sketches, preliminary drawings, prints, head studies, Polaroid’s, stencils and signed collectible books tied to UNIVERSE.
Q: What is Lincoln Townley’s UNIVERSE collection?
A: A major body of work—ten pictures created over 18 months—exploring success and creating one’s own reality.
Q: Where and when will UNIVERSE be exhibited?
A: Saatchi Gallery, King’s Road, Chelsea, taking over Gallery 5 this September.
