Roaring success for animal art
WHOEVER said not to mix business with pleasure needs to take a leaf out of Jamie Polk’s book.
Polk left the City behind him when Jupiter Asset Management, his former employer, was taken over by Commerzbank. But that was by no means the end of Polk’s business career.
Paralysed from the chest down following an accident in 2000, Polk launched the Animal Art Fair which, now in its third year, comes to the South Bank this weekend.
The Animal Art Fair charges artists for a stall but cuts out the commission galleries take, which can be up to 50 per cent.
“This could be where the art market has gone in ten years,” Polk tells The Capitalist.
The fair caters to “everyone’s tastes and everyone’s budgets”, and this year is partnering with the Angus Lawson Memorial Trust, a charity set up by Deutsche Bank managing director Nick Lawson and his wife Kara following the death of their two-year-old son in 2006.
Polk says: “Artists and City workers are almost polar opposites in the way they view life. But there’s no point in working unless you really love working.”
And The Capitalist has no doubt its readers will flock to the fair to pick up the latest in animal-based art.
For half-price tickets (£4), enter AAF241 at www.animalartfair.com by Wednesday.