About Us

The Discerning Eye aims to encourage wider conversations around the understanding and appreciation of the visual arts.

Our Board

Sarah Hall

Sarah was appointed Chair in January 2019. She is a qualified accountant, has held leadership roles in international stockbroking and has CEO experience in the media services industry. Her career spans over 30 years living and working in the UK, the USA and Asia. More recently she has gained considerable NED experience mostly in the arts and charity sectors. Sarah is currently also a trustee of the Landmark Trust, of Opera North and is Interim Chair of New Perspectives, a Nottingham based touring theatre company.

Giles Brown

Giles is an art collector and author/consultant in higher education. He has worked in a range of roles in the HE sector including as a researcher in glaciology (University of Cambridge), lecturer in Geography and Earth Sciences (Aberystwyth University), manager (Geography, University of Bristol) and journal editor in higher education policy and practice (Routledge/Association of University Administrators). He was a Selector for the 2014 Discerning Eye Exhibition, has served as a member of Education Advisory Committee since 2016, and was invited to become a member of the Discerning Eye Board in 2020.

Adelaide Damoah

British-Ghanaian artist Adelaide Damoah's works currently span painting, performance, collage, image transfer and photographic processes. Key areas of interest for interrogation are colonialism, spirituality and intersectional feminism. Since her debut exhibition ‘Black Brits’ in 2006 Damoah has exhibited in myriad group shows and performed internationally. Damoah has works in private collections nationally and internationally. She is a founding member of the Black British Female artist (BBFA) Collective which is represented by Tafeta Gallery, London and a co-founder of the Intersectional Feminist (INFEMS) Art Collective. In 2019, Damoah became the first black artist to be appointed an academician of the Royal West of England Academy.

Tabish Khan

Tabish Khan is an art critic specialising in London's art scene and he believes passionately in making art accessible to everyone. He visits and writes about hundreds of exhibitions a year covering everything from the major blockbusters to the emerging art scene.Tabish has been visual arts editor for Londonist since 2013. He is a regular contributor for FAD and regularly reviews for Culture Whisper. Tabish is also a trustee of ArtCan, City & Guilds London Art School.

Mervyn Metcalf

Mervyn is an investment banker by trade including 11 years at Merrill Lynch and subsequently co-founded his own M&A advisory firm, Dean Street Advisers, in 2012. Mervyn has originated and executed transactions for some of the largest corporates and private equity firms in the UK. Mervyn’s other passion is collecting art. His collection focuses on portraiture and photography. Mervyn was a selector for the 2020 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition. He joined the board in March 2021

Ciara Enskat - Accounts

Ciara is an experienced financial manager, educated at University College Dublin. She worked in Financial Services before moving into positions with responsibilities for visual arts portfolios for trusts, foundations, multinationals and art organisations. Ciara has been a dedicated supporter of the Save The Children charity and lends her spare time to the Stoneleigh Youth Orchestra.

Alice Whitehead

Alice spent 8 years in the Post-War and Contemporary department at Christie’s, before joining Francis Outred Ltd in 2020. Francis Outred Ltd is an art advisory company specialising in masterpieces from across the centuries, but with a particular focus on Modern, Post-War and Contemporary art. Prior to her time at Christie’s, Alice held a number of research roles, including Co-ordinating Editor on the Catalogue Raisonné of the works of Philip de László. She has recently co-authored a book on the rediscovery of a lost masterpiece by the Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova. Alice joined the board in 2022.

Education Advisory Committee

Anita Klein

Anita studied at The Slade school of art and is a fellow and past president of the Royal Society Of Painter Printmakers. Her work has been shown at the Royal Academy and can be found in collections worldwide including those of The Arts Council, The British Museum and London University.

James Lloyd

James is an acclaimed portraitist. From 1994 to 1996 he held the Paul Smith scholarship at the Slade School of Fine Art. In 1997 he won first prize in the BP Portrait Award and in 2008 he was awarded the Ondaatje Prize for Portraiture by the Royal Society of Portrait Painters.

Laura Gascoigne

Laura is an art writer and critic, a regular contributor to the journal of the Spectator, Apollo, Country Life and The Jackdaw. In 2006 she was a selector for the Discerning Eye Exhibition. She has collected paintings for thirty years, and is a former editor of Artists and Illustrators magazine.

Giles Brown

Our Exhibition
Sponsor

ING is proud to have been supporting the ING Discerning Eye Exhibition since 1999 – making ours one of the longest-standing corporate arts sponsorships in the UK. www.ing.com

Beyond the
Exhibition

Whilst our main focus has been and will continue to be our annual exhibition each November, for the last twenty years we have also broadened our activities in support of our declared aim to encourage a wider understanding and appreciation of the visual arts.

We host a series of webinars, DE Talks, aimed at both artists and collectors. Topics to date include, ‘How to use social media as an Artist’, ‘How can artists work with galleries?’ These are held every few weeks, hosted live on Instagram with recordings of those that have already been held available here.

To see further details of the initiatives we have undertaken over the last 20 years, such as placing artists in residence at our exhibition sponsor, ING, supporting an international exhibition and various bursaries, then please click here.

Our Support Team

Created by Emma Parker and Penny Harris in 1990, Parker Harris is one of the UK’s leading arts consultancies. They oversee art prizes nationally and internationally, provide consulting, PR and social media services, and ambitious visual arts projects across all disciplines and scales. Their clients range from individual artists, arts organisations and charities, to trusts, foundations, SMEs, fine art brands and multinationals. Parker Harris are proud to support the ING Discerning Eye exhibition as project managers. parkerharris.co.uk