Conversations in Margate: Part 2
Continuing on from last week’s blog post about my trip to Margate, I’ll be reflecting on the second conversation I briefly mentioned…
As my sis and I walked back from the beach towards the Shells Grotto, I noticed the Carl Freedman Gallery enroute. Luckily for us, the gallery was open!
We spent some time taking in the vibrant colours of the Voodoo Mayo Ketchup exhibition, with works by Katherine Bernhardt and José Luis Vargas. I’ll explore these works in another blog post as both artists have spurred a personal interest in further investigating how Puerto Rico has inspired artistic responses and creativity.
As we came to the end of the exhibition and I was deciding whether or not to buy a poster — which I did — we ended up chatting to some friendly people at the front desk. As the conversations progressed and introductions were made, we found out that we were speaking to Robert Diament (Director) and Hannan Jones (artist and Associate of Open School East)! As a visitor, it’s not often that I engage with staff or working artists when attending shows. I wondered if this was a deliberate decision? As a curator myself working back of house, this is something I would like to do more of as part of my curatorial capacity…
All in all, it was quite refreshing to have an unexpected artsy chat and of course be introduced to (yet) another podcast to add to my personal roster: TalkArt.
