Rokeby

Why Pearse thought that putting a bar towel on his head would make a good photo is beyond me, but there you go. Maybe I was the more fool for taking it. Anyway, we're at Rokeby and we're at the bar talking to Pearse the barman. Pearse has been the barman at every Rokeby private view (except one) since it opened in April 2005. And since that opening Rokeby has made quite a name for itself. Not least, I think, because of the people who run it: Ed and Beth Greenacre - two of the nicest gallery owners in the artworld I've ever met. And then, of course, there have been the shows. Some truly interesting stuff seen here over the last few months. The location of the gallery helps too: slap back in town centre, just off Tottenham Court Road. OK, admittedly a bit tough if you live in Nottingham, but great for me...
And tonight there's the work. A solo for Danish painter Kathrine Aertebjerg. I hadn't seen her work before except for some press stuff approaching the show and I had come along expecting to use words like 'surreal', 'oddball' and 'unhinged', but strangely, I ended up using words like 'engaging', 'subtle' and 'captivating'. The paintings were lovely. And she has this trick of writing the titles of the works directly onto the wall in big lower case black lettering. When I ask her: 'What's with the lettering?' she replies, 'I love the way childrens books look.' And I thought, 'I'll drink to that'. Which, with Pearse behind the bar, is a very entertaining thing to do.