London to Berlin

7 May 2013

Back in London and the sun is shining.

London to Berlin
Nicholas Frahm and Frankie Cohen are presenting their new project space The Dairy, with the older artist Armleder, whom I am not so familiar with, painting after painting, sculpture after sculpture.
London to Berlin
The guest list was spectacular and there was Cathy Wills with young sculptors Sam Zealey and Lucy Tomlins, her work I admire, who will be in our next invites show alongside the second part of our painting show with the likes of Josh Smith and Albert Oehlen later this month.
London to Berlin
On the same evening Mathew Darbyshire had created a show-stopping installation for Bloomberg Space called Oak Effect, it was a cross between DIY Utopia and real life Sim City. All the objects on show had been resurrected from the Noth Eastern museum archives.
London to Berlin
Then it was Berlin which was a wonderful array of great wonders. That is if you made the effort to look around in every little corner. We headed to the Schinkel Pavillion to see Oscar Tuazon but alas I arrived there a day too late. I managed to admire the overland pipes which were everywhere in Berlin. How very odd.
London to Berlin
Talking of Pipes at the Boros collection there was a sense of connectivity everywhere by amazing knowledgeable Gallery Assistants who were bordering on the guise of a Tino Sehgal performance. The pipes were by the duo Awst and Walther.
London to Berlin
Then there was the question of art and no art once again? With Klara Liden’s work which was scattered around the Boros Bunker. I very much liked the work in this context.
London to Berlin
We dropped by to Peres Projects and Javier’s new space was magnificent. Once again we bumped into the enigmatic Alex Israel.
London to Berlin
The next morning we were at Gallery KOW where Michael E Smith was very hospitable. This was a highlight for me and his thoughtful work was placed sympathetically with the KOW architecture and the Berlin Landscape.
London to Berlin
We dropped into Gallery Krobath to look at the work of Despina Stokou whose work I had spotted in the Armoury and at the gallery of Derek Eller. I thought this work to be full of energy. Yes not so original in concept but definitely incredibly individual. Despina seems to me a writer who expresses her thoughts through her visually powerful art works. I was also impressed with her Berlin independent Guide which she has founded and is Editor, she is certainly out there. I look forward to meeting her in June.
London to Berlin
We dropped by to Spruth Magers where we saw some wonderful shows including Richard Artschwager.
London to Berlin
Outside Johan Koenig’s Gallery were some lovely new Jeppe Hein Social benches, would love to add them to the collection!
London to Berlin
Then once again home sweet home. Where I was given the red cup, watch this space something to do with Venice I believe.....??????
London to Berlin
I headed straight to Base where we are showing Pio Abad’s installation in Invites and he happily revealed all for me and Ben Jones’ enthusiastic art loving Serpentine group.
London to Berlin
I headed over to Imitate Modern where Grumpy Bailey kids were showing off their talents. David Bailey, myself and young hard working artist Taline Temizian.
London to Berlin
Finally the cream on the milk was visiting White Cube in Bermondsey. The collaboration between Julie Mehretu and David Adjaye was magnificent. Also alongside was a lovely showing of Erin Shirreffs work, Matthew Booth and Lucas Blalock. I had the honour at last to be introduced to Lucas and he is a wonderful artist and person.