Nº 65: Helen Neven
The London-based gallerist recommends unlikable female narrators, her go-to clubs to blow off steam and all things Bethnal Green.
We’re back with Helen Neven. Read on to find out what she’s into, and if you’re new here, hit subscribe for secret recommendations every week.
Helen Neven runs NEVEN, a gallery in East London.
☞ I RIDE FOR BETHNAL GREEN: My home and the gallery are joined, almost door-to-door, by the length of Bethnal Green Road. It has everything you could possibly want or need. A pint? A post office? A piercing? BGR’s got you. E Pellicci’s is an institution, but I also recommend Cafe 338 next door if you fancy a fab caf breakfast with glow-in-the-dark ketchup. Bethnal Green Tavern serves Micheladas. Museum Gardens is a little haven on a sunny day. Attaboy (yes) Dry Cleaners have a great in-house tailor. The cobbler at Well Heeled fixed the snapped steel heel on my Malicia New Rocks with surgical precision. Richmix do £7 cinema tickets on Mondays. If I need a bouquet, I’ll go to Siansah’s for her giant Anthuriums. At the end of the day, I like to walk or lime bike home straight down the road’s bustling artery, maybe stopping for a silly little T4 Taro tapioca pearl tea. Joy!
☞ FAVOURITE RECENT BUY: is a beautiful graphite work on paper by Scottish artist Katie Shannon who is included in a group show opening at the gallery 12 April. A woman in suspenders and socks is seen from below, passing a wine glass to a waiting hand as she steps up through what seems to be a trap door, or maybe a basement entrance. It’s part of a series depicting fragments from the day of a fictional waitress. Like a lot of the work I like, it’s at once a bit morose, a bit horny, a bit campy. I would have bought the whole series if I could!
☞ READING UNLIKABLE FEMALE NARRATORS: I have a thing for novels with apathetic female narrators. I like them complicated, misanthropic and unlikable. The overlord author has to be Otessa Moshfegh, with My Year of Rest and Relaxation as archetypal of the genre. Eileen also fits the bill, and, although Lapvona doesn’t have a female narrator, every character in it is awful and obscene which is fun. Other winners include The Guest by Emma Cline, Boy Parts by Eliza Clark, and Yellowface by Rebecca F Kuang.
☞ RE-WATCHING GIRLS: Lena Dunham is due a redemption arc and I can smell it coming. Fourteen years on from its premiere, I think Girls is still one of the most masterfully-written pieces of Millennial TV canon that the doomed, so-called lazy generation produced. I have reassessed much of my early twenties through its searing lens. I believe Lena (not Hannah) was indeed the voice of her generation (or maybe a voice of a generation). Come to think of it, her memoir Not That Kind of Girl could fit broadly within my previous reco category.
☞ BUYING ART BOOKS JUST FOR THE SAKE OF OWNING THEM: Like many, I both neglect and treasure my beautiful art books. Favourites include Guggenheim’s very mega Matthew Barney Cremaster Cycle bible (an eBay grail); a 1972 edition Leonor Fini with colour plates; Nobuyoshi Araki’s Self, Life, Death; Somaya Critchlow: Paintings; and Moderna Museet’s Wolfgang Tillmans softcover which opens with a very gorgeous note from my friend Will which only reifies Wolfgang’s commemorations of community and chosen family within. I might not open them for ages, but then someone else will pick one up or reference something, and I run for that Barney doorstopper, flushed with the anticipation of introducing him to a new, soon-to-be fan.
☞ LA MASKARADE: V dear friends of mine co-run the clothing brand La Maskarade and I’m very proud of how cool they and the brand are. Come for the pink lamb baby tee, add-to-cart the full leopard tracksuit.
☞ PLASTER MAG: are killing it! The tone is great, informed yet playful, the design gorgeous, and the articles come thick, fast and consistently good. Releasing a John Akomfrah issue the week following the opening of his British pav at Venice was a flex. Speaking of Venice, spittle’s run-down of the Biennale was Pulitzer-worthy journalism.
☞ BLOWING OFF STEAM: Everyone is working very hard, and we all deserve to take a minute. I was talking about this recently to fellow God Save the Scene alum Bella Bonner-Evans, who, in true horsegirl form, goes riding in Hyde Park on Sundays. Gorgeous! I love to go out and dance. Friends of mine are running some great parties: Tech Couture, 2CPerrea and Club Are. If that’s your zhuzh, go! Do something completely separate from what you do for work, something that’s entirely unproductive other than sparking joy. If you work in art, seeing shows doesn’t count.
♪ LISTENING TO: Hector Campbell put me onto The New Yorker culture pod Critics at Large which I look forward to every Thursday. For my cycle down Bethnal Green Rd earlier, I queued up DMX Krew’s The Game and Deeper Purpose’s Party Diva.
☠ HATES: the chokehold that the Strawberry Ice Lost Mary has me in. Bring on the ban, I need to be strong-armed out of the addiction
Thanks Helen! Follow Helen here! Follow NEVEN here!
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