Leaving the cultural melting pot of Shoreditch, Laura ventured to Mayfair of all places to take in Damien Hirst’s latest offering. To say it was a bit of anti-climax is a bit of an understatement. Other Criteria gallery in exclusive Mayfair hosted and had clearly sent an invitation to every wannabe artcritic in the area. The security man on the door looked as if he’d been hired to stand outside of aclub on Slough high street for the evening and as he opened the door, a wave of sweat hit me thatpretty much set the tone for an hour of sweating, pushing past people and craning necks to see thefew prints that had been hung on the minimal walls. Not wanting to be Mrs. Critical I would say thatthe gallery itself was a lovely space and the staff were knowledgeable, friendly and more than willing to hand out ice cold beers to the sweaty general public.
And the art? Well it seems that Hirst has dined out on his spot paintings and his prints for a long while now and this was no exception. 
There were 12 new prints on display and whilst pleasing on the eye, I wasn’t too convinced of Hirst’s explanation, ‘While in isolation they may look sort of happy-like Skittles or kids sweets, when you see them together you kind of get lost in them.’ Unfortunately the only thing to get lost in was the huge crowd. Being open to a variety of art forms I wasn’t keen to judge but when I saw the advertisement for the Spot Tea Towel, Spot Canvas Tote Bag, Spot Mug and Spot Coin Purse, I realised that this exhibition is the latest in a long line of money-making exploits from Hirst’s famous spots. But then if there werethat many people there wanting to catch a glimpse of the latest instalment, why wouldn’t you cash in? I know I would.
