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Great visit to Vienna where I could not help but be moved by Rachel Whiteread’s Holocaust Memorial on Judenplatz. A large, monolithic library of inverted books, it gave the impression of having landed there from another universe. Its presence seemed to permeate through the surrounding streets, as it represented a definition of the past and the future.
The highlight of our visit of course was our Tracey who pulled it of famously in the Leopold Museum. The juxtaposition of Egon Schiele and Tracey were perfect, there was approximately 100 years between them, many of the works being produced in 2014 and 1914. Tracey was 14 when she first saw Schiele’s works and they have had an influence on her work ever since. This show was one of her life’s dreams and she pulled it off with her amazing team to perfection.
My favourite works were Egon Schiele’s “Dead Mother” 1910
Tracey Emin’s “Crucifixion” 2014
And also “Grotto”, 2014.
Then a wonderful visit to the Belvedere where they are not afraid to mix contemporary art with their grandiose traditional architecture. A humongous Franz West adorned the grounds of this picturesque landscape.
There were many surprises inside too, including an out of the box series of works by Franz Xaver Messerschmidt, his “character sculptures” created around 1770.
Straight from Vienna, we head off to Brussels where there was loads to be seen. At The Hole, Kathy Grayson was standing in front of a painting by Greg Bogin exuding her brand of cheerfulness for the camera.
We all loved this tyre by JPW3 but could not work out why.
There were some great shows in the streets of Brussels. Lucas Blalock at Rodolphe Janssen.
MOT International who are expanding their gallery space in Brussels showed some peculiar works by Florian Roithmayr.
Then we all congregated in the Brussels sunshine for a photo call, Tif Zab, Kon Trubkovich, Kristen in her Slayer t-shirt and our Lizzie. We had a great day.
Then it was back home back to work. So excited about Daata Editions, which I have worked on as an adviser with David Gryn from Artprojx. It has been an incredible project, I have loved the creative responses from the artists and cannot wait for the first works to be released. The first season launches on May 14 with works by 18 amazing artists, some established some emerging. Love this image still from Ed Fornieles.
I managed to finally visit a few galleries in London my favourite was Héctor Arce-Espasas with Oliver Robb at Evelyn Yard.
At Studio Voltaire the work by Sanya Kantarovsky was breathtaking.
I was so proud of our Ellen De Wachter. She had put together a wonderful show called “By the Mountain Path” at White Rainbow following her travels to Japan last year.
Our 20th year was a wonderful celebration. There were so many highlights, I was like a kid in a sweet shop, drifting from one delight to the next. The façade proudly stated our show with our shiny new banner.
The artists were delighted to see their old works brought out of storage to grace our walls. Looking pristine was the “Hexcell Continuum Crawler” 2003 by Keith Tyson.
Michael Landy was chuffed with his work and was wondering how many more crates he could add to his stack before it would fall down.
I loved seeing Samara Golden's installation “Bad Brains” 2012 again.
Jay and I had time to pose in front of Damien Hirst’s butterfly painting from 1994, “I Love You”.
Maitreyi’s accessories were perfectly matched to Rachel Harrison’s art work.
All the artists and our overseas visitors headed off in a double decker bus to my home.
We set up a marquee which made it feel more like a wedding than an art dinner.
Everyone turned up to celebrate - Mark Titchner, Ed Atkins, Ryan Gander, Gabriele Beveridge, Andy Holden and Richard Woods. Thanks for the pose guys!
Following Nick’s speech where I was called “Miss Enthusiasm” I had to give a speech myself, which was frightening, but Charles Saatchi and Tracey Emin were rooting for me all the way.
Then the next day was the big opening where 600 guests came through our doors to eat fish and chips and sip our gin produced by artist Alan McQuillan and look at art, of course!
All our friends came and wished us well. My lovely, beautiful girlfriends posing in front of Albert Oehlen’s “Untitled” 1988. Afterwards we all ended up at the Proud Galleries and danced the night away!
Then next morning, Voila! A lovely surprise for all of us - a full page in The Times with our Maria Lassnig painting of a frog and naked woman getting top billing.
The cherry on the cake was Jenni getting a much deserved celebration for all her hard work after 25 years at the helm of Camden Art Centre.
