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After a nightmare scenario and the indignity of being thrown into an operating room I come back from the meat grinder barely in one piece but my crusade must go on......
However I did manage to surf the Web and discover new and wonderful things going on. I even managed to purchase off JPEG - which is often a NO NO - an incredible drawing by Graham Little at Alison Jacques Gallery. His strongest art works to date!
My first night out and I head off to the BFAMI dinner where I was once Chairman for a few years and now happily an Honorary President. <br><br> The guest list was mesmerizing including Lovely Tracey who helped raise the price in auction headed by Francis Outred for a beautiful Louise Bourgeois, and Nick Serota. On our table I sat with Thomas Dane, Iwan and Manuela Wirth, Emily Tsingou and a sprinkling of very keen art enthusiasts. Cathy Wills had produced an auction to die for from Anselm Kiefer to Stirling Ruby.<br><br> Georgina Djanogly and Wendy Fisher were amazing Chairwomen. With the help of Denise Esfandi they managed to pull in 500 guests. The auction alone raised £880,000 which was astounding.
The next day I headed off with our exhibition curator Ellen Mara De Wachter to view her show 400 Women, which is about four hundred women in Mexico who have disappeared from their home. The artist Tamsyn Challenger asked two hundred artists to paint these women.
Ellen told me that every artist had reacted in a similar way. They were all very sad from the process. The show is held in the Shoreditch Town Hall basement and had an electrically charged atmosphere. Even if the work was devastatingly sad many of the colours used in these works were vibrant and uplifting and gave one a sense of hope for humanity.
Tereza Buskova's work in 400 Women
In the evening we celebrated Gregory Crewdson’s new show at White Cube. I collect all Gregory’s interesting students - the portfolio is called Gregory’s Girls which include such artists as Justine Kurland.
A new artist I was introduced to was Leigh Johnson hopefully she will become recognised soon.
Then we headed off to Copenhagen Place new gallery which was also an intriguing residency. Rachael Champion showed us her work and I think she is brilliant and definitely doing something incredibly original. The only artist I could compare her to is Sara Sze but they are totally different but both artists are looking at organic growing worlds with a strange inbuilt narrative.
Then it was off to visit Carl Freedman and Rob Diament and check out Fergal’s new work.
He is a great artist and Carl took a photo of me and my jacket next to the works.
Finally I stopped by the Approach to visit Jake Miller and Gary Webb’s new show. As usual he was finding new and wonderful forms and functions - down to a sculpture constantly changing colour and a wall hand carved out of hand made bricks...!<br><br>MIAMI HERE I COME.
