About

What's in a name? Why is Wink Gallery called wink? 

Back in the time when the world stood still and we were all locked up in our homes, I was busy reading an article about the Frieze Art Fair in The 1843 Magazine by Mark O'Connell. The article talked about collectors - "informed buyers" at Frieze London and how they just knew when a piece of artwork was worth having. They tended to recognise a "wink" - 'A particular work would seem to wink at her across the chaos of the fair – perhaps because she’d seen it in a detailed jpeg sent by a gallery, or simply because of its inherent pull – and she would keep coming back to it. For this mysterious enchantment to take hold properly required the physical presence of the observer and the object'.

Incidentally, this article was written/published on my birthday 16 January 2020. I had just lost a job I loved doing, I was just about to look for a new job and then the pandemic hit. When the world began to open up again, my good friends at GvE&Co asked me to curate a pop-up exhibition of glass and ceramics at their shop in Wilton, to complement their vibrant collection of textiles. Of course, I jumped at the chance to collaborate with Georgina von Etzdorf and Jimmy Docherty. I needed to get a website setup quickly and think of a name. Somehow, this article I had read months ago, came to my mind. The words and meaning embodied all that I feel about art and craftsmanship. Works "wink' at me, I know instantly, whether there is a connection or not. This connection has nothing to do with who made it, what it is made on or what the price is. When something "winks" at me, it exists on its own, suspended in space. It's a feeling, something that makes a person happy. That's the story, that's what those four little letters that make up the word mean.

Curated works for the eclectic person. Pop-up exhibitions.

Curren exhibition: Upton Castle Gardens, Pembrokeshire, West Wales. - just finished. Pop-up coming to Stockbridge Town Hall - 14 & 15 Nov 2024.