seen from Kazakhstan
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Springer spaniel swallows golf ball A Penrith couple have thanked the vets who performed life-saving surgery on their spaniel after he swallowed a golf ball. Full story: https://www.cumbriacrack.com/2020/01/17/springer-spaniel-swallows-golf-ball/
Wednesday 5 November
We spent all day having a staff meeting, discussing what had gone right at the fairs, what we could improve upon , and what was coming up next in the calendar.
That evening we had a visit from the gallery accountant's wife Louise, who makes wonderful fur garments. I bought everyone a fur hat.
Then it was off to Balham for Mary Gibson's dinner party. All 22 guests were female. I was delighted to sit opposite Rachel Campbell-Johnston, who had written about us in The Times last week.
Tuesday 4 November
Back in the London gallery, after what seemed months away, (but was only 2 weeks.) A delicious lunch with Isy, my gallery manager, at Dabbous. I ate grilled hay and silver birch sap- really.
On the way home from a LAPADA board meeting, I got caught in the rain with a flat tyre at Holland Park. I battled my way through the elements just in time for my evening's philosophy course, arriving in the perfect state of mind to tackle some of life's biggest questions.
Monday 3 November
On the plane and too tired to answer my mounting emails. Arrived back in London at 8.30 pm and went straight to dinner (with my luggage in tow ) to a restaurant with Andrew Malleson, whose house we stay in whilst in Toronto. He was flying back that next day, so this was the only time we had to catch up. Andrew is a psychiatrist and after dinner I walked around Fitzrovia until midnight with Matthew because I was too tired to sleep.
Saturday 1 November
The first weekend I have ever spent at RHG NYC. It was cold and rainy and the city felt hungover after Halloween.
Sunday 2 November- Marathon day
The wind was freezing on Sunday morning when I ran across Broadway and down the Hudson riverbank. I had the gloves on that I wore when I ran the New York Marathon a few years ago. On each finger, it lists the five boroughs you run through: Staten Island, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Manhattan. With the wind like a wall, I could not even run the distance printed on my little finger - Staten Island ! Poor, poor marathoners.
The gallery is open on Sunday and Katy the intern (not wearing her leaf dress this time) and I planted white cyclamen around the trees outside the gallery. It was bitterly cold.
Jess de la Hunty who interned with us in London came by, and we went for a hot chocolate and a catch-up. She is working at Other Criteria, selling Damian Hirst 'stuff'. After the Koons show, I have downgraded Hirst in my league-table of artists.
That evening, I realised that Sober October was over! I had a glass of pink champagne to celebrate. Pretty amazing to do two fairs on both sides of the Atlantic and open three solo shows, David Forster, Andrew Mockett and Karen Nicol. I am so proud of the team.
After watching a weird New York movie called I Original, I went to bed at 1am and got up at 4.30 am to catch plane to London.
5 DAYS SINCE I WAS LAST ON A PLANE
Friday 31 October- Halloween
Everyone in New York goes crazy on this day. Our intern Katy left early to sew leaves on to her dress. It took me three hours to walk a few blocks, so thick were the dressed-up crowds. I saw Whoopi Goldberg on a float, leading the pandemonium on 6th Avenue.
Thursday 30 October
Another day in the New York gallery. It is so different from the anodyne Chelsea spaces I visited later that evening. I love it, and so it seems do all the New Yorkers.
Wednesday 29 October
I love running along the Hudson- I am the only one without a dog or a baby attached to me!
A delicious breakfast at the Crosby St Hotel, with Katie-Alice, my gallery manager who is on maternity leave. We then walked to the gallery with Harvey in a pram (it really does seem you have to have a baby in a pram or a dog to perambulate through this city!)
Karen Nicol's exhibition of textile collages looked gorgeous and glowing in the clear New York light. The whole show had sold out, with two pieces going to the actress Rooney Mara.
Tuesday 28 October
A happy morning visiting my favourite Torontonian clients. I love Canadians, and indeed Canada. But at 4pm, it was time to pack and catch the 8pm Porter Air flight to New York.
A RECORD SIX DAYS OF NOT BEING ON A PLANE!
Monday 27 October
North American fairs go on until Monday and so every school child in Toronto comes to the booth. None of them are capable of looking unless it is through the lens of a camera phone.
At 5 o'clock, an hour before the fair closes, depression sets in. At 5 o'clock the fair looks glamorous, - and people are wandering down the carpeted aisles drinking champagne - and by 6.30 the lights are off, the carpets are gone, and huge trucks whistle down the aisles delivering crates from the loading bays. Was it all a mirage?
Phu, who was to help us pack the crates, had cut his hand. But his friend Graham, (who is a girl!), came in to help. Eventually everything was wrapped, the shipping documents signed off, and we were out of there! It was 1am and all the restaurants were closed, so we headed to Andrew and Donna's house for a midnight feast of gluten free toast.
Saturday 25- Sunday 26 October
On Saturday, everyone was going crazy for Ross Bonfanti's concreatures. The gorgeous Andres from a Canadian gallery buys one every year- here he is with his latest acquisition.
The Sunday evening we go out to dinner with Greg Gatenby – Mr Toronto. He used to be the director of the brilliant Harbourfront Book Festival, and has infectious passions for world literature, Canadian history and good food. All of them important things. He takes us to a delightful little restaurant in a little street where every house is decorated for Halloween.
It is called The Wind-up Bird Café, run by a Korean writer and his wife. The food is delicious – as are the ingenious ‘mocktails’ devised ad-hoc by the charming barman. Greg is working on a history of the Canadian participation in World War I. He is full of brilliant stories. This evening we have the invention of barbed-wire.
Friday 24 October
Although I think we are doing well in Toronto, I get an excited text message from the team back in London. They have been setting up for the AAF in Battersea Park. And the fair there has started with a blast. On Saturday morning The Times arts-section has a cover picture of their art-critic, the beautiful Rachel Campbell-Johnston, standing on our stand. She had been sent by the paper to cover the art-fair with an imaginary £3,000 in her pocket. And the artwork she chose to spend her virtual money on was Phil Shaw’s stunning monochrome print of a shelf of books, ‘The Truth in Black and White, with various shades of grey’. It is a brilliant work – and a brilliant choice! As a result of the coverage the print edition sells out by the end of the day.
Wednesday 22- Thursday 23 October
The Toronto fair opens with a big party on Thursday. The event is scheduled to start at 4 pm and the Torontonians are all ready and waiting. They like to do things early, here. Luckily – having done the fair for the last ten years – we know this, and we are ready and waiting too.
Coming back to an art fair year after year is important, especially overseas. You build up loyalty and confidence amongst the local population. And I think Canadians in particular appreciate and enjoy the sense of continuity. It is fun for us too. Certainly we see many old friends and repeat customers. We sell three of our largest artworks during the opening night.
Tuesday 21 October
A beautiful Canadian Fall day – bright, low sunlight and leaves glowing with every shade of red, orange and yellow. To prepare myself for the rigours of the Toronto International Art Fair I went for a run amongst along the Rosedale gorge. And that was pretty much the last I saw of the glorious Toronto autumn. After that it was off to the Convention Centre – for unloading crates, hanging pictures, and getting ready for the gala opening.
Monday 20 October
Caught the Porter Air flight up to Toronto on Monday evening. Porter Air is adorable: little propeller planes and 1950s style air-hostesses – and very reasonable ticket prices. The plane is small enough to land almost in the centre of Toronto – on a little island, just off the harbour-front. Instead of getting a bus to the main terminal, you get a little ferry to the shore. 1 DAY SINCE I WAS LAST ON A PLANE.
Sunday 19 October
My friend Belinda and her teenage daughter Gaby are in town too, and although Gaby's main aim is, it seems, to visit every Sephora shop in New York, I insist that we make a pilgrimage to see the Jeff Koons retrospective at the Whitney.
It is a total wow. I remember seeing Koons’ exhibition of basket-balls floating in tanks of distilled water, in Cologne back in 1982, and being amazed then. And he has just gone on getting better, bolder and stranger: balloon sculptures, baroque billboard pornography, a life-sized Michael Jackson in porcelain. A genius: he really is the true heir to Duchamp and Warhol. Even Gaby was impressed.
On the highline.
Saturday 18 October
In New York for the weekend. Breakfast at the Crosby Street Hotel in downtown Manhattan is just like being in the gallery. Well, not quite. Sadly we don’t have eggs benedict (on gluten-free muffin) with freshly-squeezed ‘juice of the day’ back at the gallery. But one is surrounded by stunning Peter Clark collages.
Kit Kemp, the inspirational creator of Crosby Street (and other Firmdale Hotels in London and NY) has long been a huge fan of Peter’s work. And I always swell with reflected pride when I see his works in the hotel here – especially the almost-life-size bull, collaged from old Ordnance Survey maps, hanging above the bar.
Friday 17 October
A happy day in the gallery working through my daily 200 emails when I suddenly realised that at 3.15 the next day i had to go to New York. I never travel light and am usually accompanied by one suitcase of art. I HAVE NOT BEEN ON A PLANE FOR FOUR DAYS!
