- Carl Freedman
Carl Freedman (born 1965) is the founder of
Carl Freedman Gallery (formerly Counter Gallery). He previously worked as a writer and acurator , initially withDamien Hirst , to help pioneer theBritart phenomenon.Life and work
Freedman and
Damien Hirst had been friends inLeeds before Hirst moved to London. FollowingDamien Hirst 's seminal 1988 show "Freeze", Freedman, with Billee Sellman, curated two influential "warehouse" shows in 1990, "Modern Medicine" and "Gambler", in a Bermondsey former factory they designated Building One. To stage "Modern Medicine" they succeeded in raising £1,000 sponsorships from artworld figures includingCharles Saatchi . Freedman has spoken about the self-fulfilling prophecy these sponsors helped to create.Saatchi arrived at "Gambler" in a green Bentley and, according to Freedman, was immediately impressed by (and then bought) Hirst's first major "animal" installation, "A Thousand Years", consisting of a large glass case containing maggots and flies feeding off a rotting cow's head. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2003/03/17/bacg17.xml "Market News:Counter", "The Daily Telegraph",
17 March ,2003 ] RetrievedApril 2 ,2006 ] (The installation was later a notable feature of the "Sensation" exhibition.) At this early stage, Freedman was financing the production of Hirst's vitrines, and has commented that not many people attended these early shows, including "Freeze".In 1994 he toured the US with
Tracey Emin , driving in a Cadillac from San Francisco to New York, making stops en route where she gave readings from her autobiographical book "Exploration of the Soul" to finance the trip.The couple also spent time by the sea in
Whitstable together, using the beachut, which she uprooted and turned into art in 1999 with the title "The Last Thing I Said to You is Don't Leave Me Here", and which was destroyed (along with her "tent") in the 2004 Momart warehouse fire.In 1995 he curated the show "Minky Manky" at the
South London Gallery . At the time Emin was relatively unknown. Freedman, concerned that he would be accused of nepotism, challenged Emin to make a great work. The result was Emin's famous "tent" "Everyone I have Ever Slept With 1963–1995", which was first exhibited in the show. Freedman's interview with her appears in the catalogue. Other featured artists wereSarah Lucas ,Gary Hume ,Damien Hirst ,Mat Collishaw ,Gilbert & George , Critical Décor and Stephen Pippin. Freedman said one of the show's themes was::the artist as a subject, and (to) explore the relationship between the art on the wall and its creator, to make the whole thing more humanistic. And in there somewhere there is the beginnings of a thesis on the relationship and similarities between madness and modernism, for example, defiance of authority, nihilism, examples of extreme relativism, strange transformations of the self, irrationality, and things like that. [ [http://web.ukonline.co.uk/n.paradoxa/ellis.htm "Do You Want to Be in My Gang", Liz Ellis,February 2 ,1997 ] RetrievedApril 2 ,2006 ] "Minky Manky" also went to theArnolfini gallery, Bristol.As interest in the YBA's reached a peak in 1996-7, Freedman was a regular writer for "
The Guardian ". In 2000 he started the business Counter Editions withMatthew Slotover , publisher of "Frieze" magazine, (Slotover has since left) to sell prints online by artists such as Jake and Dinos Chapman, Emin and Rachel Whiteread. In 2003 he opened Counter Gallery in Charlotte Road,Shoreditch , East London to sell original works. The launch was attended by Emin, Hume,Gavin Turk ,Rachel Whiteread ,Gillian Wearing and the Chapman brothers. The opening show had works bySimon Martin , an art lecturer and YBA contemporary. Since then the gallery has continued to grant solo shows to its artists, includingPeter Peri ,Gareth McConnell ,Michael Fullerton ,Armando Andrade Tudela ,Fergal Stapleton andTatiana Echeverri Fernandez , holding around seven exhibitions a year. In 2007 the gallery changed its name toCarl Freedman Gallery .ee also
*
Young British Artists References
External links
* [http://www.carlfreedmangallery.com Carl Freedman Gallery]
* [http://www.countereditions.com Counter Editions]
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