Carl Freedman

Carl Freedman (born 1965) is the founder of Carl Freedman Gallery (formerly Counter Gallery). He previously worked as a writer and a curator, initially with Damien Hirst, to help pioneer the Young British Artists phenomenon.

Freedman and Damien Hirst had been friends in Leeds before Hirst moved to London. Following Damien Hirst's seminal 1988 show Freeze, Freedman, with Billee Sellman, curated two influential "warehouse" shows in 1990, Modern Medicine and Gambler, in a Bermondsey former factory they designated Building One. To stage Modern Medicine they succeeded in raising £1,000 sponsorships from artworld figures including Charles Saatchi. Freedman has spoken about the self-fulfilling prophecy these sponsors helped to create.

Saatchi arrived at Gambler in a green Bentley and, according to Freedman, was immediately impressed by (and then bought) Hirst's first major "animal" installation, A Thousand Years, consisting of a large glass case containing maggots and flies feeding off a rotting cow's head. (The installation was later a notable feature of the Sensation exhibition.) At this early stage, Freedman was financing the production of Hirst's vitrines, and has commented that not many people attended these early shows, including Freeze.

In 1994, Freedman toured the US with Tracey Emin, driving in a Cadillac from San Francisco to New York, making stops en route where she gave readings from her autobiographical book Exploration of the Soul to finance the trip.

The couple also spent time by the sea in Whitstable together, using the beach-hut, which she uprooted and turned into art in 1999 with the title The Last Thing I Said to You is Don't Leave Me Here, and which was destroyed (along with her "tent") in the 2004 Momart warehouse fire.

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