Art Diary: New York New York

New York New York

Everywhere we went in New York, Alicia Keys' song was blaring in my ears!
We had the most amazing time and our trip was very successful.

The Armory organisers can be very proud of themselves, as they created a great vibe through the city.

The Armory itself was a little too visual for me - especially being jetlagged. But we did spot a few great art works - Rina Banerjee, Philip Lorca di Corcia, David Haines (who sold out his booth within the first minute of the art fair opening).

David Haines

Our first stop was to Dakis Joannou at the New Museum. We bumped into a few great friends,

like Dakis and Lisa Dennison,

Tim Noble with blonde woman,

Richard Flood who was checking in his guests on arrival.

The next day was a whirlwind of art fairs: Pulse, our first stop, where we saw the work of Timothy Berg and Rebekah Myers's Futurama

Then we went to Volta, where Heather Cantrell was creating some interesting new photos. Watch out for the gorilla and the fox in the background of other shots!

Andrew Renton

The Independent fair was by far our favourite. It did not feel like and art fair.

We made a few gallery visits, and our favourite were Bryce Wolkowicz Gallery, showing the Helsinki School. And at Deitch Projects, showing the work of Rosson Crow. And a wonderful show at Andrea Rosen showing Wolfgang Tillmans.

Amir Shariat becoming and MB gallerist for the day at Marianne Boesky Gallery.

We gave a lovely dinner for Tate

We had some wonderful guests, including some collectors from around the world including Rob Diament and Russell Tovey! Also joining us were Gabriel Orozco, Tino Sehgal, Matthew Day Jackson, Susan Collis, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Tracey Emin.

The new married couple, the De Purys joined us and were very happy as their sale was a big success.

Afterwards, we went with Tracey, Rob and Russell to the Avenue, where she kindly gave my friend Jill dancing lessons.

We dropped by Matthew Day Jackson's studio in Brooklyn, and he introduced us to
Nick Van Woert and

Amir Shariat and Matthew Day Jackson

Jorg Grimm, Amir Shariat, Dave McDermott and Matthew Day Jackson

Lizzie checking it out

Our late nighter, we spent at the Mercer, with Thomas Dane and Simon Preston
Thomas and Lizzie

Simon

Our last stop was visiting Vito Schnabel and his brothers Si and Olmo at the Brucennial 2010, where we purchased his latest discovery, Vahakn Arslannin and purchased our very first Aaron Young for the Collection.

Work by Vahakn Arslannin

Then back home to London, and at 176 we hosted a panel discussion for Israeli video artists, who had been showing at Tate Modern, chaired by Candida Gertler and organised by Ayelet Elstein.