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.
Claire Tabouret’s paintings and prints investigate notions of representation, recollection, and the ways in which relationships are constituted. Tabouret is particularly fascinated by ideas around identity, and intimacy and she draws inspiration from magazine photographs, textbooks, and snapshot imagery. These she transforms using a vibrant palette and loose brushwork to create diaphanous veils of Day-Glo colour. Her compositions rarely function as fixed likenesses but instead serve as fluctuating entities which evolve in time.
Born in France, Tabouret studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work is held in Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Musée des Beaux Arts de Montréal, among other public collections. Tabouret has had recent solo presentations at the Musée Picasso, Paris, and the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami; her exhibition I am spacious, singing flesh was a collateral event of the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.
Carolyn Djanogly is a celebrated portrait photographer whose work has documented many of the leading figures of our time with striking clarity and formal gravitas. Turning her lens to prominent politicians, leading actors, musicians and artists, as well as corporate changemakers and social innovators, Djanogly’s subjects form a cross-section of history in formation.
Djanogly was born in 1965. Following an earlier career as a BBC researcher and Granada TV documentary director, Djanogly achieved widespread critical acclaim for her first book of photography, Centurions, published in 1999 by Andre Deutsch.
Some twenty-two images from this publication, which depicted some of the most significant figures of twentieth century Britain, were acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London. Djanogly’s photography has appeared in a wide range of international publications, such as Vanity Fair, The Times, Forbes and Der Spiegel, and she has exhibited widely throughout the UK.
Marcel Dzama’s lyrical, radiant visual language is presented through dream sequences or surreal, often subversive, fairytales. In scenes where both the whimsical and carnivalesque intermingle, Dzama folds contemporary social and political issues into an art historical narrative steeped in folk vernacular. Dzama works in media spanning painting, drawing, ceramic, video and costume design, as well as a recent work in mosaic produced for a public commission at the Bedford Avenue Station in Brooklyn, New York.
Dzama was born in 1974 in Manitoba, Canada. His work is found in numerous permanent collections including those of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottowa, and the Tate, London. Recent major solo exhibitions of Dzama’s work include those at the Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Mexico; the Savannah College of Art and Design Museum of Art, USA, and the Sara Hildén Art Museum, Finland. A major survey of Dzama’s career was held in 2010 at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Canada. Dzama lives and works in New York City.
