Join us for an evening of conversation between writer and curator Hettie Judah and Second Lives exhibiting artists Nicole Farhi and Lucille Lewin – in anticipation of Hettie’s forthcoming book on unconventional routes into the art world launching in 2026.

Leading the discussion will be Karen Sanig, Head of Law at Mishcon de Reya. The talk will commence at 6.30pm.

This in conversation is now at capacity. Please note, the exhibition is free to enter and open from 19 – 24 November 2025. We look forward to welcoming you at another time.

Panel Speakers

Hettie Judah
Hettie Judah is a writer and curator. She is a regular contributor to The Guardian, Frieze and The Times Literary Supplement, and writes a monthly column for Apollo magazine. Her writing on art can also be found in Art Quarterly, Art Monthly, ArtReview and other publications with 'art' in the title.

Nicole Farhi
Nicole Farhi studied art and fashion in Paris in the late 1960s. Her career as a fashion designer took off so quickly that she put art aside for a few years. Having launched her successful fashion label in 1982, she started studying sculpture. In 1985, as she was casting her first bronze, she met Eduardo Paolozzi, who became her friend and mentor until his death. From then on, Nicole knew she would turn to sculpture for the rest of her life. Second Lives features many works from her ‘Shapeshifting’ sculpture series, which depicts delightfully tactile figurative forms. Their smooth surfaces and sinuous curves are seductively inviting, but the works also resist easy assimilation as they pivot on an axis between the paradoxical human desire to reveal and conceal.  

Lucille Lewin
Lucille Lewin’s abstracted sculptures allude simultaneously to figure, environment and architecture. Her chosen materials reflect the beauty of Chinese porcelain that has been ruptured - allowing an organic creation of form. Fractured, bleached and possessed of a very particular aesthetic, the work reflects what the artist describes as ‘the interdependent chaos we have created’. Her desire for knowledge and continually evolving through learning is what drives her and reflects her work ethic in both careers: ‘I’m really doing what comes out of my DNA. Communicating what’s inside me … a natural progression … the same aesthetic … it’s definitely aligned to fashion’.

Karen Sanig
Karen founded Art Law at Mishcon de Reya in 1995 in response to client demand in a then largely unregulated art market. Karen advises on all art related matters for artists, dealers, collectors, galleries and many others in the worldwide art market. Her expertise covers sale and purchase of art, artists' rights, their legacy, creation and management of artists estates, disputes over attribution, authenticity and ownership, cultural heritage matters, restitution of looted cultural property, import, export and art related AML. The legal directories describe Karen as "eminent and one of the leaders in the art law world". She is responsible for the Mishcon Art Project which showcases living artist's work at the firm's London offices on a revolving basis. Karen is a Trustee of Camden Arts Centre and the Burlington Magazine.