Rude Britannia and more...

Mon 7th I went to check out the show Rude Britannia, which i thought was very charming.








I love and adore BRIT humour and feel it is a way of explaining to us who we are. There were some interesting works.

I loved the work by David Shrigley - Dead Cat.
















Also this work by Kennard Phillips.












And Finally this lovely sad little light sculptured by Barry Reigate.















In the evening Nick Hackworth of Paradise Row gave a wonderful drinks party for Barry Reigate at the Ivy Club. Caragh Thuring, Alastair Mackinven, Matt Collishaw were also their to show support.

Barry giving Alistair a hug.










Tues 8th We had delightful lunch at Sothebys the guest of honour being Dimitris Daskalopoulos. Then with Vikki Hughes and Muriel I went back to Louis Vuitton to show them the new store and Michael Landy's incredible installation. We dropped by to Spruth Magers and saw the Karen Kilimnik and Joseph Cornell show which was curated by a very proud Todd Levin. I thought the show was very pretty but I did not have enough time to understand.

Weds 9th I went to lunch to Rochelle School where Camden Arts was hosting a lunch for Jim Hodges. I found meeting JimHodges again was most nostalgic as I had not seen him since 1992 when he was working in Mrs Dan Hauser's basement in New York. I was not very insightful those days as I did not see the point of working with plastic flowers on serviettes.



Great Picture of Jenni and Jim









After our wonderful lunch I headed of to the Slade art show there was surprisingly much to see.

I bumped into Varda Caivano, an amazing artist. We have her paintings in our collection, Karin Ruggaber who gave a wonderful talk at 176 on Elliot Hundley and Ulla Von Brandenburg in our Past Forward show and Camilla Wilson standing in front of a wall work by Ramon Fernandez.





I like particularly this work where the artist is in a recording studio and howling like the dog in real time.









I also liked the conceptually delicate work of Orly Aviv

After the Slade it was off to the Barbican and before my eyes were very weird pods on the walls and ceiling looking spider-like with people in them. Lizzie and I stayed for John Bock's whacky performance amongst the audience were Maureen Paley, Anne Hardy, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Neil Hamon and spotted were Sean Regen from LA, Christos Gerozissis from Anton Kern and Rob Diament with the breaking news that he is going to be joining Carl Freedman Gallery.

Great photo of the pods.









Christos and Rob posing in front of the pod.









I managed to spend a few minutes upstairs before dinner and we went to a wonderful show called ‘The Surreal House’. Amongst the great Masters the likes of Magritte and Dali was such artists as Rachel Whiteread, Rachel Kneebone, Tim Noble and Sue Webster. I thought the show was incredible and for me the most exciting work was the film by Jean-Luc Goddard with Brigitte Bardot called Le Mépris, I had not seen his work since i was a teenager.
Then it was dinner time but first the Whitechapel. My congratulations go to Achim Borchardt Hume, Iwona Blazwick, Francois Chantala, Martine d'Anglejan Chatillon, Dimitris Paleocrassas and Thomas Dane and most of all Dimitris Daskalopoulos. The show called 'Keeping it Real' part one for me takes me back to the Dan Hauser show I saw in 1992 in NY and as well as Jim Hodges being in the basement their before me was Bruce Nauman, Robert Gober and Mathew Barney. I never realised but for me this show was really defining for me art in the 1990s and Keeping it Real had also elements of the early 1990s.

A very happy Dimitris with Richard









The dinner was held at the Astors' family old home overlooking the Thames with guests such as Dakis Joannou, Jack Kirkland, gallerists such as Iwan Wirth, Barbara Gladstone and leaders of the art world such as Nick Serota and Richard Flood were present.

On my way out I passed a bijou smoking tent where Lizzie, Simon Preston, Victoria Siddall, Francois and Martine were looking very glamorous.







Thurs 10th June Jim Hodges opening at Camden Arts. The exhibition was absolutely gorgeous I must have been so blind not to have thought to collect his work. Stephen Friedman, Maureen Paley and Jenni Lomax were walking around like proud uncles and aunts.

Jenni and the gang









Fri 11th I bumped into Nick Baker from FA Projects. Sadly he and Zoe have had to close their wonderful gallery but the good news is that he will take a position with Simon Lee.


I also stopped by Pilar Corrias's show which was quite spectacular. We purchased work by a young artist called Mary Ramsden the show was called 'Purity of a Myth'.







Then to Camden to Nancy Fout's show where I reserved a few pieces. Now I am off to Basel. Watch this space.