Art of Wishes Partners with Christie’s for 2023 Gala
Art of Wishes Partners with Christie’s for 2023 Gala
Art of Wishes is delighted to announce that we will be collaborating with auction house Christie’s for our upcoming gala. For our fourth charity auction, we are extremely excited to partner with the esteemed auction house, whose quality and expertise are world-renowned, and have Jussi Pylkkänen conduct the live auction.
A week before the gala, a preview of all the live auction items will take place at their King Street space, where they will also host a cocktail reception.
The Art of Wishes gala takes place on the Monday preceding Frieze, London once every two years. To date, over 50 artists have participated by donating works, raising over £8 million. Collaborating artists have included Tracey Emin, Jenny Saville, Georg Baselitz, A.R. Penck, Anish Kapoor and Idris Khan.
Art of Wishes is delighted to announce that we will be collaborating with auction house Christie’s for our upcoming gala.
2022
In the Autumn of 2022, Art of Wishes staged an auction of fifty-one of Italian jeweller Fabio Salini’s creations, raising over £750,000 for Make-A-Wish UK.
The collaboration between Salini, Art of Wishes and Sotheby’s came about as a consequence of the turmoil caused by the Covid pandemic, during which Salini found himself repeatedly questioning the role of art in times of crisis. He said: ‘My jewellery is an aesthetic expression of concepts and feelings and the events of the past three years made me think about how I could use these works to help others. I was searching for a greater purpose for my work and as such am delighted to make this donation in aid of Art of Wishes — it is a magnificent charity that seeks to deliver dreams and experiences to children who are going through very difficult times. What is the purpose of art if it cannot change lives?’
Of the collaboration, Batia said, ‘I have always been a huge admirer of Fabio’s exquisite jewellery, and when he proposed this idea I was genuinely overwhelmed by his generosity. In making this donation, Fabio not only helped make the wishes of thousands of children come true, but also made a meaningful impact on their lives. I will forever thank him and offer my sincerest gratitude for his truly transformative gesture.’
2021
In 2021 Make-A-Wish UK granted its 15,00th wish. To commemorate this achievement, Art of Wishes commissioned artist Brendan Dawes to create an NFT artwork inspired by children and their wishes, to be auctioned at the 2021 gala.
Dawes uses generative systems, relying on data, machine learning and code to craft his pieces. This work, entitled 15,000 Wishes, features 15,000 multi-coloured strands, each one to represent a wish that has turned into reality thanks to the work of the Make-A-Wish UK Foundation. Hope, possibility, beauty derived from chaos, the restoration of childhood and a change from the norm are the themes that run through every strand.
June 2020
Amidst the nationwide lockdown of 2020, British artists Annie Morris and Idris Khan, OBE, each created and donated one hundred limited edition prints of two artworks to Art of Wishes.
Typical of the artist’s style, Khan’s Long Live Love (2020) is composed from a variety of media, including watercolour, oil sticks and sheet music, which he layers continuously to build an abstract, rhythmic piece.
Morris’ Two Hills (2020) takes inspiration from the daily diaries she filled during the pandemic. The re-occurring rhythms and symbols of her family’s life and anxieties are translated into this poetic, narrative drawing.
Khan said of the two prints, ‘“I think both images allude to a childlike drawing sensibility - free and creative movements and gestures… almost like beautiful wishes in themselves!”
June 2017
In 2017, Art of Wishes presented a number of artists with children’s wishes, asking them to create a visualisation of their desires.
Artworks included Tracey Emin’s tryptic I Was Wishing For You, Riding on the Waves, and I Wish for You, her recreation of nine-year-old Grace’s wish to ride her pony across the Welsh countryside. Gillian Wearing, Michael Landy, Dan Colen and Thomas Demand were among the other artists commissioned, who represented wishes such as Tamir’s wish to play viola with the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra and Amy’s wish to go to the Royal Ballet School in London.
A.R. Penck (1939 – 2017) was a German painter, printmaker, sculptor and jazz drummer. A Neo-Expressionist, his best-known works were famed for their neo-primitive style and typified by their simplified figures and forms, which Penck referred to as ‘Standart.’
His work is represented in numerous public collections, including MoMA, New York, the Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
In 2019, his estate donated 'Untitled (Standart)' (1967 bis 1968) to Art of Wishes for auction.
Alex Prager is an American photographer and filmmaker. Her elaborately staged images aim to capture some of the surreal, expressing something that exists between fiction and reality, referencing Hollywood cinema, experimental films, pop culture and street photography.
Prager has had numerous international solo shows organised by her gallery representative, Lehmann Maupin. Her work has been exhibited in museums such as Fotografiska, Stockholm, Sweden, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia and The Photographers’ Gallery, London, United Kingdom.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the FOAM Paul Huf Award (2012), The Vevey International Photography Award (2009), and the London Photographic Award (2006). Her editorial work has also been featured in several prominent publications, including Vogue and New York Magazine.
In 2021, Art of Wishes acquired 'Eva' (2009) for auction, courtesy of David and Sayoko Teitelbaum. Prager, along with Lehmann Maupin, also donated an edition of 'Ian (After Philip Lorca diCorcia)' (2016) to Art of Wishes in 2019.
Portrait of Alex Prager, Photo by Christopher Michel, Courtesy Alex Prager Studio and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London.
Alison Watt (b.1965) is a Scottish artist known mostly for her portrait paintings.
Famous for winning the National Portrait Gallery’s John Player Portrait Award while still a student, her best-known works often depict the female nude. More recently she has turned to still life, asking how the two styles can interact with one another by looking for narratives within everyday objects.
She has had several solo exhibitions at places such as the National Gallery, London (where she was also appointed an Associate Artist), the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and the Dulwich Picture Gallery. In 2008, she was awarded an OBE, and later in 2017, was appointed a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh. She is represented by Parafin.
Alongside Parafin, she donated 'Stem' (2020) for auction to the Art of Wishes in 2021.
Portrait of Alison Watt, photo by John McKenzie.
