Art of Wishes Gala 2023 raised £2.6m for Make-A-Wish UK, enough to fund over 1000 wishes.
The Gala was one of the first events to be hosted at the spectacular new Raffles Hotel London at The OWO. This historical landmark was the perfect setting for such an incredible evening where some of today’s most recognised artists, gallerists and celebrity talent gathered.
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.
Stanley Whitney stands among today’s most important abstract painters. Drawing upon influences ranging from European art history to experimental jazz, he is deeply attuned to the complexities of colour. Raised in a small African American community in Pennsylvania, he moved to New York during the 1960s, where the city and its art scene fuelled his imagination. It was not until a trip to Rome and Egypt during the 1990s, however, that his art began to assume its current form, defined by architectural blocks of colour and thin horizontal bands. Whitney paints with gestural, intuitive brushwork, allowing light and movement to seep through his structures.
Deborah Azzopardi’s exuberant, playful Pop style has remained consistent across a decades-long career. Enthralled by the everyday, Azzopardi is constantly in dialogue with notable figures of the US Pop movement, while offering more subtle references to the art historical cannon and figures such as Manet, Bouchet or Fragonard. Presenting a distinctively British counterpart to the work of Pop luminaries such as Roy Lichtenstein, a quick witted and tongue-in-cheek British sense of humour is ever-present in Azzopardi’s distinctive visual language. In each work, Azzopardi presents liberatory snapshots of womanhood through a bold, celebratory command of colour and line.
Azzopardi was born in 1958 in London. Numerous solo exhibitions of her work have been held across the US and Britain, including the largescale gallery retrospective 35 Years of Azzopardi staged in 2020 by the Cynthia Corbett Gallery, which has represented the artist internationally for many years. Azzopardi originals and limited-edition prints are found in numerous international collections. Azzopardi lives and works in London.
British artist Jadé Fadojutimi is celebrated for her rich, sensory abstract practice. Driven by a love of colour, she draws inspiration from fashion, anime and childhood memories, as well as the work of artists such as Amy Sillman and Phoebe Unwin. Fadojutimi views art-making as a deeply personal act, requiring a state of heightened sensory awareness. Often working late at night, she surrounds herself with visual stimuli, paying close attention to her feelings, memories and impulses. Organic forms and gestures begin to arise, evolving across the canvas like characters.
Fadojutimi studied at the Slade School of Fine Art and the Royal College of Art. Over the last five years she has taken her place at the forefront of her generation. In 2021 she became the youngest artist to have a work acquired by the Tate, and mounted her first major institutional solo show at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami that year. She participated in the 2022 Venice Biennale to great acclaim, followed by a solo exhibition at the Hepworth Wakefield, where another of her works is held.
