Director and chief curator, Hayward Gallery, London
What are you here for?
Ralph: Someone told us this was a good place to find antiques.
Stephanie: To see good art.
Best thing you’ve seen?
Ralph: Artist Michael Landy. He takes your credit card and you get a drawing.
Stephanie: Charles Atlas – Miss Peanut Butter In New York
Got your eye on anything?
Christian Jankowski’s €65m yacht.
What’s on your dance card this week?
Ralph: A meditation session with Pipilotti Rist on Friday morning.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
Stephanie: Cheaper and better shows. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Artist
Best thing you've seen?
I've noticed that a lot of people are wearing wide-check suits. I literally bumped into a guy wearing wide check. He said to me “I should check my wallet”, in case I stole from him. And I rounded the corner and thought it was a double bluff, so I checked mine. It is a bit like being in a pinball machine, knocking around between people and paintings. I like seeing my work in art fairs: it’s a way of testing them out. If it can work in this environment, it’s a good sign.
What are you wearing?
I'm wearing Marc Jacobs trousers with a half skirt and Louboutin shoes. It makes me sound really label-conscious.
What’s on your dance card this week?
The launch of my single, Bianca Jagger’s charity auction (I donated a painting). Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Director, Tate
Have you bought anything?
Personally, no. We’ve bought work for the Tate, which we’ll announce tomorrow.
What’s on your dance card this week?
Many openings, the premiere of Steve McQueen’s Shame and a lecture to write.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
It means dealers are more interested in selling to us rather than private collectors, so it is a little less frenzied than it was. At the high end of the market there hasn’t been a reduction in prices, so it's still difficult to acquire major works by celebrated artists. We’re making progress raising money for extensions and renovations; it’s taking a little longer than everyone would wish. Eventually we’ll come out of the recession and people will expect museums to be firing on all cylinders. We have to make commitments now. We can’t wait. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Artist
What are you wearing?
Sven clogs from Sweden, Missoni tights and my shirt is from Ya Ya. I got this on the beach in LA but I wear it as a scarf.
What’s on your dance card this week?
I want to go see a Tracey Emin film tonight in her studio.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
I’m too superstitious to talk about money. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Design critic, New York Times
What are you here for?
To look at lots of lovely art! It’s fun and general contextual research.
Best or strangest thing you’ve seen?
Pierre Huyghe's aquarium installation with the spider crabs. The crabs are so beautiful and have a very characterful stance: they're casual but playful and very determined. Also a gallery from Bucharest, showing Ion Grigorescu – some black-and-white photos he did in the 1970s, very simple close-ups of eyes and a woman braiding her hair.
Do you have your eye on anything?
I’d love to buy Ion Grigorescu’s photos.
What are you wearing?
A Balenciaga alsatian sweater dress and very sturdy Prada desert boots. The shoes are my all-purpose stomping-around-all-day walking shoes. Plus, I cycled here! Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Co-director, Serpentine Gallery, London
What are you here for?
I’m here to be with art as Gilbert and George say so nicely: “That’s all we ask.”
Best thing you’ve seen?
Several pioneering artists who have been forgotten: Ion Grigorescu, Geta Bratescu from Romania, artists from the 1960s whose work is not so known internationally. Hassan Sharif or Etl Adnan from the Middle East.
What’s on your dance card this week?
Every day is exciting. There’s a polyphony of events. We have the marathon at the Serpentine: the garden is the topic, and we have more than 50 participants thinking about gardens in the 20th century.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
Gerhard Richter once said that art is the highest form of hope. Art is more important than ever in a time of recession. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Head of art galleries, Barbican
Best thing you’ve seen?
The delightful Michael Landy homage to Tinguely, in which you swap your credit card for a drawing.
What’s on your dance card this week?
I’ll be spending a lot of time in the exhibition we’ve just opened at the Barbican on the work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
In the short term, figures have held very favourably in terms of the amount of people going to galleries. It’s seen as a good value, and a sustaining form of culture in the current climate. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Artist
What are you here for?
I’m here because I have a show at Wilkinson Gallery.
Best thing you’ve seen?I just walked in the door. The way it looks and feels – it has a nice energy.
What’s on your dance card this week?
Richter and Tacita Dean at Tate Modern, Pipilotti Rist, Saturday’s art marathon at the Serpentine in Hyde Park. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Director, ICA, London
What are you here for?
I’m here to see the whole fair, and I had no idea it was this big.
Best thing you’ve seen?
Pierre Huyghe’s fish tank installation, featuring a crab with a Brancusi head, which is slowly but surely eating all the other creatures in the same tank.
What’s on your dance card this week?
Yesterday the ICA had a lunch for 100 people, followed by a reception, followed by an evening performance. I went from our opening to Sadie Coles’s dinner and then to a party at Jay Jopling’s house. I’ve got meetings every hour until Sunday.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
The market remains strangely resilient given the background noise. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Art collector, and curator, Zabludowicz Collection
Best thing you’ve seen?
Lizzie: The LuckyPDF/Peles Empire studio space will be a great place to hang out.
Have you bought anything?
Anita/Lizzie: We’ve got one or two things on reserve.
What are you wearing?
Anita: A David Blandy designed special edition T-shirt.
Lizzie: Comfortable shoes.
What’s on your dance card?
Anita: The ICA’s kunsthalle-style evenings and tonight’s Frieze party. Amy Winehouse’s band is playing and Mark Ronson is DJing.
Lizzie: ICA’s party.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
Anita: There’s still a lot of commerce. Art has held its own.
Lizzie: Things seem to be carrying on. I don’t understand how, but they are. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Writer and broadcaster
Best thing you’ve seen?
I like the Glen Ligon neon piece called Negro Sunshine. That’s probably my favourite thing.
Do you have your eye on anything?
Slightly out of my league.
What’s on your dance card this week?
Richter. Also Elmgreen & Dragset, who are having a salon at the Danish embassy tomorrow.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
I actually think things are a bit more low key, in a good way. What you’ve seen over the years is lots of “look-at-me art”. This year there’s more work that’s contemplative, which I like. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Artist
Best thing you’ve seen?
I like the trees growing in the tent.
Do you have your eye on anything?
I’m not in that position!
What’s on your dance card this week?
My six-week-old son visits today. I haven’t seen him for a week.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
I don’t see the effect. I’m not one of the people who ever made much money. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Former director of the Royal Academy
Best thing you’ve seen?
So far, Matthew Brannon, showing at Casey Kaplan from New York. He uses letter press type in a very original way. Some people are here to sell wares and some are here to get an idea across, which this is.
Do you have your eye on anything?
Not this time, but I occasionally buy little things. I’m not a rich man who can go out and spend £40,000. I’m flirting with something that I saw: Takeshi Murata, showing at Salon 94.
What’s on your dance card this week?
Trying to avoid parties and going to the opera and concerts as much as possible.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
No idea. You should buy art because you like it, not for investment. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Artist
What are you here for?
I’m showing new works relating to my project The Island, which includes a tree in the middle of the fair. It has pickable wax fruit. I’m hovering around in case I’m needed.
Best thing you’ve seen?
I saw some Picabia drawings that I really loved.
Do you have your eye on anything?
No – I’m broke.
What are you wearing?
A new jumper from a gentleman’s boutique called Sefton.
What’s on your dance card this week?
Wilhelm Sasnal’s opening at the Whitechapel.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
I’ve been fairly insulated because I’ve been doing lots of institutional shows. Institutions seem very pressed for cash, which means they’re showing artists whose galleries can pay for the shipping. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Artist
Best thing you’ve seen?
I’m just really enjoying the energy, and the diversity.
What are you wearing?
This is a fabric I found many years ago and saved. I decided I would copy this fabric on to a top I bought in the 60s, for Frieze.
What’s on your dance card this week?
I’ve scheduled myself to go home tomorrow which is too soon. I’m going to try and reschedule.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
I hope it doesn’t impact on my show! Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
Curator, Frieze
Best thing you’ve seen?
All the Frieze projects running without a hitch.
Do you have your eye on anything?
A nice lunch at Hix.
What are you wearing?
Relaxed clothes because I have to run around.
What’s on your dance card this week?
The Studio Voltaire Chisenhale Herald Street Modern Institute Vilma Gold party that I'm are DJing at.
How is the global recession impacting on art?
Government cuts are impacting on not-for-profit and grassroots organisations, which is where the artists who show at Frieze often begin. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for The Guardian
