As one of the world’s most prolific Contemporary art Galleries, White Cube has stations all over the world (two in London, one in Hong Kong and one in Sao Paolo, to be precise.) In Hong Kong for this week’s Art Basel, the team therefore know a thing or two about where to rest, eat, shop and what to see in the cities they spend their lives frequenting. Here, Tim Marlow, their Director of Exhibitions, open’s the pages of his international address book, listing his essential run down of the places he goes when visiting the gallery’s outposts.
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London
Hotel – I tend not to stay in hotels in London but Claridges was where I spent the first night of my honeymoon and I remember booking a room at the Savoy for Valentines Day which had been used by Monet to sketch the Thames. Both are grand, historical, sumptuous and beautiful. A surprise choice would be Shoreditch House in East London – it’s well priced, stylishly functional rooms come with access to the club for breakfast and the rooftop pool.
Shop – Aside from galleries, bookshops are places I love to spend time in and Cecil Court just off St Martin’s Lane is still the best place in the age of Amazon. My favourite shop used to be Red Snapper – I bought most of my Ballard collection from them and a whole host of Sixties psychedelic stuff. I still regret not buying an entire collection of Oz magazine, and now they’ve closed down. So instead, for well-priced modern first editions, Tindley and Chapman is the place to browse. The other really great antiquarian bookshop in London, out along the Fulham Road, is Peter Harrington.
Restaurant – Sheekeys always feels special and has a timelessness to it; St John’s remains a knock-out. The pig’s cheeks and bone-marrow are the stand-out dishes for me, but I’ll eat anything Fergus Henderson cooks, and he’s cooked pretty much all parts of most animals. My new discovery down in Bermondsey near White Cube’s new gallery is Pizzarro, a Spanish restaurant with seriously good food.
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Hong Kong
Hotel – I tend to stay at the Four Seasons because it’s right opposite the gallery and has a great view and a great pool but my favourite Hong Kong hotel is definitely the Upper House. There’s something unbelievably decadent and primal at the same time about lying in a bath looking out over a city, and every room has this possibility.
Restaurant – Sushi Sase on Hollywood Road is excellent, discreet and very accomplished, but for Cantonese food, which I have to eat in Hong Kong, the best I’ve yet encountered is the Tung Po Seafood Restaurant with it’s formica tables, plastic chairs, neon lighting, cacophanous noise verging on chaos and mountains of unbelievably tasty food. For some reason the soft shell crab sticks in my mind but not my throat – all of which makes it almost perfect.
Shop – I’ve not really done much shopping in Hong Kong, which is odd given its mercantile past. The Malls are substantial and have most of what you might need but are utterly soulless. Having said that, there’s a wonderful tailor called Jimmy who has a small outlet at Admiralty Mall who makes shirts for me that are as good as any I’ve ever bought. I’m fascinated by the cookery utensil shops but haven’t yet summoned the nerve to try and take a couple of meat machetes home in my luggage.
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Sao Paulo
Hotel – The best hotel in the city, some say in South America, is the Fasano and I’ve enjoyed the odd night there but by some twist of fate when the Fasano had overbooked they found me a room at the Unique and that’s where I now always stay. It’s faintly ludicrous – designed by Ruy Ohtake and looking like a vast hole-filled hammock from a distance, everything about it verges on being over-designed and yet it’s light and spacious and has the most wonderful (decent-sized) rooftop pool by which you can eat breakfast looking back over the city one way and over Ibirapuera Park the other.
Restaurant – It’s got to be those three letters currently at number six on the World’s Best Restaurant list – d.o.m. – where the chef Alex Atala justifies the hype and the price. I once lost part of a filling there but that was probably through eating with too much gusto rather than any reflection on the food. At the other end of the food chain, there’s an unremarkable looking coffee shop across the road from the Unique Hotel where I always buy a milky coffee and a pastry after a run in the park. Standing out in the sun by the awning there makes me almost as happy as eating a gourmet meal.
Shop – The stalls outside the Museum of Football at the legendary Estadio do Pacaembu are a must. When in Brazil, you buy football kit for your sons and nephews … well, I pretty well always do. Better still, go to a game and watch Corinthians.
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Pictures:
LONDON: White Cube Bermondsey, Jac Leirner, Cartoon nº 2 2012 Mixed media 48 1/16 x 14 9/16 x 3 9/16 in. (122 x 37 x 9 cm) © the artist currently on show at White Cube Bermondsey and Julie Mehretu, Mogamma, A Painting in Four Parts, 2012 Ink and acrylic on canvas 180 x 144 in. (457.2 x 365.8 cm) © the artist Photo: Ben Westoby, Courtesy White Cube and currently on show at White Cube Bermondsey, Claridges Hotel, J Sheekey’s restaurant and Peter Harrington Rare Books.
HONG KONG: Jake and Dinos Chapman, The Sum of all Evil, 2012-2013 Fibreglass, plastic and mixed media in four vitrines 84 5/8 x 50 11/16 x 98 3/8 in. (215 x 128.7 x 249.8 cm) © Jake and Dinos Chapman Photo: Ben Westoby Courtesy White Cube and currently on show at White Cube Hong Kong, the Upper House Hotel.
SAO PAOLO: Mark Bradford, Thievery by Servants, 2013, Mixed media collage on wood, frame, Overall dimensions: 118 x 358 in. (299.7 x 909.3 cm) 50 panels, each: 21 5/8 x 33 7/8 in. (55 x 86 cm) © Mark Bradford, Photo: Joshua White Courtesy Mark Bradford and White Cube and currently on show at White Cube Sao Paolo, Unique Hotel Sao Paolo, and d.o.m. restaurant.