MAY DAY!

MAY DAY!

We visit Ryan Gander’s show at Lisson and then the hard-working Toby Ziegler in his studio which we discovered was not far from 176.

We watched Toby and his technicians at work. Something exciting is happening!

Then I head to Rachel Harrison Dinner at the Whitechapel - the place has never looked so vibrant. All the spaces were intimate and full of people in no hurry to leave. Rachel’s show was warm and filled the room beautifully. She however was not willing to let me take her photo and accused me of being a BLOGGER - in a nice way of course.

I sat next to Philippe and he asked me to take his photo so here it is...

I sat opposite Freddy and Muriel, Iwona Blazwick and Andrew Renton on a huge big long table at the Rochelle School.

Coincidently the next evening in Berlin at Andreas Gursky’s dinner I was sat in exactly the same place opposite Muriel and Freddie but this time with Monica Sprüth. The new Gursky work was spectacular - views from NASA Satellites.

I also sat next to Carl Freeman who was very happy that we had acquired Fergal Stapleton’s works and he asked if I would take his photo so here it is...

I dropped by to Haunch of Venison where Damien and Michael Joo were the stars. I bumped into Tim and Sue, Michael Landy (first time in Berlin), Gillian Wearing & Keith Tyson who is getting ready for his Triathlon and is on great form. Damien’s revolting work....flies all over the picnic table - yuck!

Lizzie, Maitreyi, Bernd, Anna-Catharina Gebbers and Christian Ehrentraut - My Anglo-German Gang!

Then they somehow managed to drag me to a the Dice club where everyone was very happy and Marc Almond was singing the night away. I spotted one of his biggest fans.

LA was there in full force Sean Regan, Glenn Ligon, Peter Doig, Steve Hanson and Javier Peres with his dream team. We were all dancing to Rory’s Reggae then to Spencer Sweeney’s ensemble.

I caught up the next day with Hurvin Anderson in the street who only last night we were dancing away with.

We loved the group show that Pavel Büchler had put together at Tanya Leighton Gallery. We bumped into him with Douglas Gordon. I asked Pavel if we could meet again as I really liked him. I reserved a slide show on plastic bags by Sean Edwards.

Martin Klosterfelde showed us his new space an old printers shop still intact Isaac and Freda Uziyel joined us.

We paid a visit to Johann König and the work he was showing was by the artist David Zink Yi - he had created a forest of silver palm trees.

We admired the laid back atmosphere at the Berlin galleries – even on the busy Gallery weekend.

Our highlight was bumping into Tom Burr at Neu Gallery’s MD72 space - it was amazing to meet him and talk about his work. We have recently acquired some of his work for the collection.

Our last stop was to see Sebastian and Sylvia at KLEMM’s where we bought another Alexej Meschtschanow work called ‘Baltic Boy’. A lovely way to finish of our pleasure trip, sadly no time for Museums but we managed to visit over 30 Galleries in 24 Hours...!

Our farewell to Berlin was a naked man emerging from the U-Bahn... Happy Labour Day!

Great Smiles - April 2010

My impenetrable Israeli Easter bubble has finally burst!

I was celebrating our daughter turning into an adult and we invited a few of our friends to join us in the Dead Sea it was a dream. Now back and buried deep into the art bubble again.
But even in Israel we managed to check out the vibrant and über trendy Tel Aviv art scene.

We headed to Jaffa and after ate an amazing lunch in the harbour amongst the fishing boats: Shifra from Dvir Gallery joined art lovers Simon, Kenny, Jaqui, Daniel, Amir, Lizzie, Arlene, Tiffany and myself. And then off to Dvir gallery where Shifra and her son proudly stand in the midst of works by Abdel Abdessemed and Claire Fontaine.
















Then we went to the Dead Sea where Thomas Dane and Paul Pfeiffer show off their mud. I promised Thomas i would not show a picture of him without his hat ... so no mud pictures unless Michael Landy begs me to. (Photo: Richard Braine)





Then back to London and 176, where the Library of Babel is in full swing (extended until 13 June art lovers!). We have had so many excellent guest speakers take tours, which as well as the artists in the show include other volunteers from all walks of life.

Tracey dropped by for a tour with Catharina, Sophie von Hellermann and Alex Heim to talk about her photograph called ‘Good Smile, Great Come.’







Sarah Thornton joined Sue Pearce and Anne Welsh who gave talks on collecting and knowledge - it was very entertaining.










Artist Lora Hristova gave a talk on her favourite artists in the show - it was wonderfully dark in nature.










I went to Dasha’s BRIC tea party at Philips, it was a lovely afternoon, then to Fake Modern at Camden Arts Centre for the Outset Big Rip Off day.














I acquired some bricks by Caragh Thuring and some wool by Katja Strunz. Alex De Cunha gave quite a quirky henna Sierra performance....







Then I went to the wonderful lunch for BFAMI. It is their tenth year and Tracey Emin was the honoured recipient of the Woman in Arts award. She gave the most wonderful talk with Tim Marlow interviewing. Then popped on her top hat and raised many twenty pound notes before picking the winner... me! And nope, it was not fixed.

Tracey could see I did not want to give my beautiful mono print away so she generously donated yet another which went to Pamela Crystal.







Then Graham Steele of White Cube desperately counted the money with the help of his assistant Tim Marlow.














Assistant and Chairman Wendy Fisher with Tracey
















Muriel Salem and Georgina Djanogly with Tracey









Heather Kerzner, Tim Marlow and Candida Gertler - giving great smiles.








Later I dropped into the show of Gerry Fox at eleven - the show is very beautiful and an amazing introduction to any collector of Modern Masters who wishes to collect contemporary art.








His few days old little girl also paid a visit to the show...










Then I head of to the Victoria and Albert depositories at Blyth House for the new Artangel project by Judith Clark and Adam Phillips: The Concise Dictionary of Dress.

It is all one big huge mystery that perplexed me from beginning to end, even with Alain De Botton as my walking partner.







Then to Modern Art Inc and the mesmerising show by Nigel Cooke. He gave myself and some ladies a lovely talk on the story of creativity.







Hilary Crisp had created a wonderful show with the help of Graham Hudson. This is a work by RCA student Ed Fornieles. I am wondering if this might influence my younger kids to want to collect?

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.






Then off to the CAS dinner, which was a great success. Everybody looked amazing, dressed in white.







Michael King looked like Larry Gagosian? ...Or Steve Martin? Definitely somebody famous.















Top marks for Elsian! I award her ten out of ten.