Wow! What a weeķ in… Venice! We were there to celebrate the inauguration.of the Ireland pavilion #dreamshook by @nolanisabel@labiennale . In 2015, Launch Pad commissioned Isabel to create an outdoor sculpture for a private residence in New York. ‘I love an arch’ were Isabel’s words. Yes she does - Brava Isabel!! We salute you!! #isabelnolan #ireland #launchpadalumni #venicebienniale #arches #sculpture #tapestry #painting #drawing #mustsee 1-4 installation shots and details 5 Isabel with Launch Pad New York host Laura Taft and Launch Pad founder, Sarah Elson. 6-installation shot. 7 Isabel and pavilion curator Georgina Jackson 10 ‘A Thing in Space’ 2015 New York
Ione Coker Lee, my beloved mother, passed away last Thursday. I am grateful for her deep thoughtfulness, her attention to beauty, her striving for the best in herself and her loved ones, and for the unconditional love and grace I’ve known my whole life. Her departure was peaceful and I believe as she left our company, Dad was there to greet her with a smile. 🤍♥️
This week Rose Wylie’s exhibition opened at the Royal Academy, and I couldn’t feel prouder to have played even the smallest part in her extraordinary journey.
Fifteen years ago, I put Rose on the shortlist for Women to Watch, the National Museum of Women in the Arts’ biannual international exhibition. Her painting Lords and Ladies was acquired by NMWA and caught the attention of Germaine Greer, who famously championed her as “Britain’s Hottest New Artist” — at 76.
In 2010, from a pile of canvases in her Kent studio, I chose an exuberant painting, Tucan and Jay (Spiders and Birds)(2008), for my own collection. I had no idea then how much it would come to mean to me. That painting is part of my every day - it hangs where I see it constantly - and it was there on the day I got remarried, witnessing that new beginning too. Since then, that painting and Rose herself have inspired me in ways she would never imagine. During the pandemic I took up needlepoint and stitched my own version. Then I asked my furniture-making Dad to collaborate, and together we turned it into the seat cushion of a bird’s eye maple bench. I even took a short story course at City Lit and wrote Two Birds and a Bunch of Grapes, which found its way into that year’s anthology.
I was there for her early shows with Jari Lager. I was there for her Serpentine show. I was there for her first show with David Zwirner. And now the Royal Academy.
It’s been such a joy to have been along for the ride. 🐦✨
@ukfriendsnmwa@womeninthearts@royalacademyarts@davidzwirner@jari_lager
#rosewylie
#figurativepainting
“Japan Junket 2025”
Our beautiful blend of 10 made memories!
Among our takeaways are that some sumo wrestlers have rizz; your hands must be just wet enough to form a perfect rice ball for nigiri; I ♥️donut and I’m donut? Bent knees is a skiing game changer; pork fat tastes good on a steaming bowl of ramen; snow monkeys learned from humans how to enjoy onsen; bathing nude with family members is actually quite nice; you CAN get tired of Japanese food; vintage clothing is on another level in Japan; adding -er to a verb is a lame but effective bananagram strategy.
Feeling so grateful to this amazing crew we merged. Thanks for the memories @c_choa@icelson@whatevs96_@ed_elson_@jundisimo@henry.train #nickchoa #nicoenriquez @reetli ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️
Seeing Iceland through @sigrundavidsdottir eyes and hospitality is something I will always remember. Friends of all ages, from all places would follow this woman across crevassed glaciers and ice floes if she said so! As it is, we boarded Sigrún’s Party bus to Hafnarfjörður to walk among bubbling, sulfurous thermal springs, then to the abandoned town of Grimalvik, decimated 2 years ago by local volcanic eruptions but painstakingly rescued by intrepid volunteers, including her own nephew who accompanied us. We stopped to walk around the lava from the last eruption only 3 months ago. When her favorite communal outdoor pool closed early, all 30+ of us followed her on foot at dusk to another one where we cold-plunged and boiled ourselves to pink robustness. We ate and partied our way through one night, danced our way through another. And some of us (sadly, not I, having already succumbed to sleep) followed the outdoor swim with her impromptu moonlit drive south to find the Northern Lights!
So glad to have shared this adventure with @nolanisabel ! In addition to the festivities, we survived a volcanic eruption (shaking seats and rising temp included), ice cave spelunking at Perlan Nature Museum, wandered the Einar Jonsson Museum of the artist’s home and his monumental sculptures of muscled men (eg The Outlaw, 1901), and enjoyed Icelandic specialties like sliced cheese (tindur) with melted brown butter (no joke)
Sigrún taught us many things and my favorite is the saying “þetta mun allt ganga upp,” or something like that which means It Will All Work Out!
A new museum for @princetonuniversityartmuseum Princeton University! The ribbon was cut last night and the mood was ebullient. Considered necessary since the 1980s, the execution of this extraordinary feat is due to the coordinated efforts of many friends and alumni, but most especially to the vision and perseverance of Director James Steward who spoke from the heart about the role of art to open minds and expand the spirit.
The new building occupies the center of campus and is designed to entice people in. The paths that students use to cross campus are incorporated into the public spaces of the museum. Large “lens” windows allow tempting views of works from the outside, while arcades through the museum frame the iconic arches and trees of the existing campus. This museum will give new meaning to that wonderful description of paths that we form out of habit and enjoyment: “desire lines.”
I’m honored to play a role in this project as a member of the PUAM Advisory Council and as founder of an endowment that supports a short residency for and purchase of work by international artists. Some of the works are installed for this inaugural hang: Suki Seokyeong Kang, El Anatsui and Taiye Idahor.
And best of all, for sure, @ed_elson_ and @electrabf joined me for the celebration and wander through the amazing new galleries.
@dianaalhadid #joanjonas #dorothearockburne
#artandhumanities#arteducation
#fraangelico
A quick trip to Paris for our @outsetart Partners final vote meeting for Cycle VII - an exciting group of institutions with impactful proposals. Many thanks to the outset team and congrats to our hard working partners!
A visit to @fondationlouisvuitton for a romp through the entire career of Gerard Richter.
Last year Outset supported @awarewomenart AWARE, the extraordinary archive of women artists founded by curator Camille Morineau. Our funds helped the archive expand its reach to major museums which are increasingly relying on the database for biographies and supporting information on artists outside the cannon of art history.
Behind the scenes at the @centrepompidou , just closed for its 5-year renovation, we got to visit the Bibliotheque Kandinsky which Outset supported 4 years ago for a project that researched how artists, designers and activists have used graphics to question power structures.
Studio visit to Three Star Books where artists are invited to collaborate on limited editions artists books, like this one by John Armleder.
Oh, and of course, there were the art fairs and a heist at the Louvre
Scenes from a fantastic visit with @jyll.bradley and friends to see her impressive solo show @theboxplymouth GO SEE THIS BEFORE 2 NOV!
“Running and Returning” comprises work from her last 40 years. I especially love the central room in the exhibition where the self portraits she made as a young art student in the early ‘90s are presented for the first time. They say so much about that age in all our lives when we are trying on personas, identities, feeling our way through the world to find best how to express ourselves, sometimes in the open and other times in the privacy of our own homes.
The theme of interior and exterior, the use of materials that are both solid and reflective (timber,plexiglas, mirror), references to horticultural structures that nurture and literally shape growth (the hop, greenhouses, espaliered walls) all speak to an ebb and flow, reaching and retreating, expanding and contracting that seems a good metaphor for life and identity itself.
Jyll was among the first artists in residence we invited to Launch Pad LaB @launchpadart back in 2018, so on a personal level, it’s a thrill to see her recognised and celebrated.
💛💚💙
Thanks to The Box Director Victoria Pomery and Head of Collections Rebecca Bridgman for the tour, tea and cakes!
