Saatchi Gallery

I'm ashamed to admit that it has taken me until yesterday to visit the Saatchi Gallery in Chelsea, now gifted to the nation in an act of great generosity in these cash strapped times and free to all. The current show is new British artists. Lots to love, be indifferent about and even loathe here, but a very worthwhile trip on the rainest day of the summer holiday so far.

I was pleased to see Eugenie Scrase's Truncated Trunk, having followed her exploits on TV earlier in the year in School of Saatchi. Also it was good to see so much painting espcially Hurvi Anderson, Alastair MacKinven, Phoebe Unwin and William Daniels.

The one permanent exhibit is Richard Wilson's 20:50 - a whole lower ground floor gallery filled with sump oil. A stinky optical illusion is created where you are not sure what exactly it is you are looking at. Only blowing on the surface reveals that it is there at all. We speculated on the depth of oil and wondered if this is how the fouled beaches of Louisiana smell just now.