Park West Gallery began the New Year by unveiling a new artist during their first online auctions of 2022, and the results were incredible.
Melanie Stimmell, the acclaimed artist from Las Vegas, made her Park West debut at the gallery’s special New Year’s Weekend live-streaming auctions and immediately proved popular with the collectors in attendance.
12 original paintings by Stimmell were featured, and all 12 sold out during the weekend’s auction events. In fact, there was such a demand for Stimmell’s work that she even added three additional paintings that were still being worked on in her studio—and all three of those paintings sold out as well.
Her final studio painting, titled “Awakened,” sold after several rounds of intense competitive bidding, and Stimmell was still finishing it as it sold on Sunday night. Stimmell noted that the paint was still wet on the canvas as the final gavel came down for “Awakened.”
But that wasn’t Stimmell’s only milestone this past weekend. The artist also premiered two new graphic works for Park West’s New Year’s auctions, which were quickly embraced. The first, “The Countess Ova Rose,” was sold 48 times. The second, “The Messenger,” was sold over 120 times—shattering the previous Park West record for the most works of the same image sold by any artist in a single day.
The previous record was held by the acclaimed Miami artist Kre8, who, coincidentally, reached that milestone during last year’s New Year’s Weekend online auctions.
There was another amazing parallel between Park West’s 2021 and 2022 New Year’s auctions, which made the events a family affair. During the 2021 auction, Jasmyne Sitter—a 3-year-old “auctioneer-in-training” and daughter of Principal Auctioneer Jordan Sitter—banged the final gavel on the Kre8 work that became the first artwork in Park West history to be collected by over 100 collectors on a single day. During the 2022 auction, Jasmyne—now 4 years old—was back and, once again, brought down the gavel to celebrate Stimmell breaking Kre8’s former record.
“I couldn’t be happier with Melanie Stimmell’s debut,” said Albert Scaglione, Founder and CEO of Park West Gallery. “Our New Year’s auctions are becoming an important launching pad for some of our most successful artists, and I’m pleased that Melanie was able to carry on that tradition.”
Stimmell first connected with Park West Gallery during the company’s inaugural “Made in Vegas” artist competition in 2021. The contest was targeted at finding emerging artists in the Las Vegas area and celebrating the opening of Park West’s two new locations at the Forum Shops in Vegas’ Caesars Palace. Stimmell was one of the competition’s Top 10 semi-finalists and quickly attracted the eye of Park West’s executive team.
“The moment I first saw Melanie’s work, I knew we’d found something special,” said John Block, Park West’s Executive Vice President. “Her work is so whimsical and evocative, blending reality with the fantastical in such a bold way. It’s not every day that you encounter an artist with such a clear vision, and I am thrilled that we get to share that vision with our collectors.”
Stimmell is an incredibly accomplished artist and illustrator who worked for years as a technical director on the popular South Park television series. Known worldwide for her talent as a muralist, she has been awarded gold medals and first place awards in Europe’s most prestigious street painting competitions, including the title of Maestra Madonnara (Master Street Painter) in both Italy and Germany.ritz
Now based in Las Vegas, Stimmell is a fine artist, teacher, and co-founder of We Talk Chalk, a 3D-street painting company.
In addition to Stimmell’s monumental first show, Park West’s New Year’s Weekend—hosted by Jordan Sitter and David Gorman—also featured a fantastic collection of original art from iconic contemporary artists like David “LEBO” Le Batard, Romero Britto, Jim Warren, and Thomas Kinkade and master artists like Albrecht Durer, Victor Vasarely, and Marc Chagall.
Park West Gallery holds live art auctions on cruise ships all over the world and at select other luxury travel destinations. The gallery also has locations where art lovers can tour their museum collections or take home a work of original art in Michigan, Hawaii, and Las Vegas, Nevada.
In addition to their cruise and gallery events, Park West hosts live-streaming art auctions every week where collectors can acquire new works from the comfort of their homes. To participate in one of Park West’s live-streaming art auctions, interested parties just need to fill out their online interest form and a personal concierge will get them scheduled for an upcoming weekend.
