Five art things, properly back in the saddle now, didn’t we almost say all this last time? No more sitting in a dark corner, that rather rewarding Sam Windett show at the Approach is still on to May 10th and that Sasha Styles film at Outernet was rather good and we see Alice is back for more. On we go then and never mind whatever we said last time, that was then, this, once again is about this week and next and needing more cake and yes you are right.

Here, for what any of this is worth are five more art things? Five art things, five more art things happening somewhere around right now (or any moment now). Five art shows to check out in the coming days. We do aim to make this an (almost) weekly round up of recommended art events, five shows, exhibitions or things we rather think might be worth checking out. Mostly London things for that is where we currently operate and explore, and like we said last time, these five recommendations come with no claims that they are “the best five” or the “Top Five”, we’re not one of those annoying art websites that ignore most things whilst claiming to be covering everything and proclaiming this or that to be the “top seven things” or the “best things this weekend”. This Five Things thing is simply a regular list of five or so recommended art things happening now or coming up very soon that we think you might find as interesting as we think we will…

And we should add, that entry to these recommended exhibitions and events, unless otherwise stated, is free.

1: Kate Walters, I saw the waking field at Arusha Gallery – 2nd until 25th May 2024 (with an evening opening on May 9th, 6 until 8pm) –  Kate’s paintings have always looked exciting on line, this promises to be rewarding, a chance to see some of her larger work in the flesh. Her art really does do all the talking, we don’t need to say too much here. You can find a preview of the work via the gallery here or follow Kate’s Instagram feed here

Arusha Gallery is found at 6 Percy Street, London, W1T 1DQ. The gallery is open Monday until Saturday, 11am until 6pm

2: Alice in Hackneyland – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – We did preview this one last week and indeed review it and post a big bag of photographs, it was original only running for one weekend, it has now been extended for a second and will be open again on 4th to 6th May 2024, it is well worth your time – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, “an immersive exploration of memory through objects and spaces set within a Victorian house that was once formerly a pub until its closure in 1983”. Two floors of mostly installation along with some painting and where does the show end and the hosue start?

Luckily, like we spied the original details while walking home from a gig which is how we came ot preview it last week, this week we were lucky enough to spy one of those annoying Instragram 24 hour stories that hardly anyone ever gets to see unless they’re incredibly lucky, why do some artists, curators and galleries use as those damn Stories as their only for of publicity or communication. No, Alice still doesn’t do communication, it doesn’t seem to be a thng for some, why is it so hard? Is it not cool to inform people/ To engage? Still it is an excellent show, one of our favourites so far this year, here’s the review – ORGAN THING: Alice is back in Hackneyland, she doesn’t live here any more but she does have an exciting set of installations and a rather excellent immersive exploration of memory through objects and spaces for one weekend only. Catch it if you can…

Find Alice at 83 Goldsmith Row, Hackney, E2 8QR – Shoreditch side of Broadway Market – The show happens again on 4th/5th and Bank holiday Monday 6th May 2024. Opening times 11am until – 6pm – Instagram. Here’s three more images (lots more with that review)

3: My Dog Sighs – Inside Out at Copeland Gallery, Peckham – Friday 10th May until Sunday 12th May with an opening on Thursday 9th May (7-9.30pm) – “Next week I’m going to be in London, working once again with my good friend My Dog Sighs, I’m curating an incredible exhibition of new works by My Dog Sighs with some reimagined highlights from the acclaimed Inside extravaganza of 2021 and there’s also a premier of a new short film – all of this, for one evening and three days only. If you’re in the capital? It’s not to be missed…”.

Most of us missed My Dog’s Inside thing what with Covid and with him unreasonably expecting us to leave London and head down to Portsmouth or wherever out there in the sticks the Dog hangs out.  We of course have a long history in terms of My Dog Sighs here at Organ/Cultivate and those Vyner Street and such, almost lost thing mists of time now of course and really, I have considered My Dog Sighs, in recent times, as so so many so called Street Artists are, a bit of a one trick pony (and frankly I’ve had enough of eyes for now!), his Inside thing looks like it might be the start of something a bit more challenging.  

Copeland Gallery, Copeland Road, Peckham, SE15 3SN. The opening is on Thursday 9th May: 7pm-9.30pm, then the show runs Fri 10th May: 12pm-7pm Sat 11th May: 11am-6pm | Sun 12th May: 11am-5pm. There’s a Facebook event page here

4: Pleasures at Shoreditch Modern – 2nd until 17th May 2024 with an opening on Thursday 2nd May (6pm until 8pm ) – “A group exhibition exploring pleasure through the work of six female artists”, we see it includes Olivia Strange, last spied as one of the highlights of the London Art Fair back in January – ORGAN THING: Searching for the positives at the London Art Fair – there was Marie Elisabeth Merlin and Alice Wilson and James Dearlove and Olivia Strange and Henry Ward and Alistair Gow and yeah, on the whole… –

“Shoreditch Modern and media company Women of the Wick are partnering for the first time to organise a tantalising exhibition called PLEASURES. Exploring the themes of sensuality and pleasure the exhibition will open with a talk on 2nd May and will continue until 17th May at Shoreditch Modern. The exhibition explores the theme of pleasure through a myriad of personal views and experiences in mediums such as paint, ceramic, photography and printmaking. The selected contemporary female-identifying artists reclaim the narrative that has far too often been stifled by societal norms and overshadowed by male voices – in playful, raw and poetic ways”.

Artists featured: Adele Brydges, Margaux Carpentier, Catrine Håland, Ania Kann, Olivia Strange, Daisy Tortuga

Shoreditch Modern is at 93-95 Sclater Street, London, E1 6HR. The gallery is open Wednesday through to Sunday Midday until 6pm.

5: James Fuller, The Cart Before The Horse at South Parade –  2nd May until 8th June 2024 – “South Parade is pleased to present The Cart Before the Horse, James Fuller’s second solo exhibition at the gallery, continuing its long-standing commitment to his sculptural practice”.

“Through fragile surfaces of copper, beeswax and textiles, Fuller sketches out curious technological visions, by mining the imagery and language of newly published patents. Extracted moments of incidental poetry permeate the works and provide alternative visibility on which to pin collective consciousness.

The first moments as you enter the gallery might present a feeling of emptiness, meaning giving way to gravity and pooling on the floor. A series of Fuller’s ultra-thin electroplated foils offer a cautious welcome. Continuous conductive metal skins — tenths of a millimetre thick that have been slowly grown in tanks of electrolytic solution — take up this vulnerable space communing at your feet. Engraved texts circulate the folded and stitched surfaces, caught like whispers in a colliding glass well, circling a plughole that’s not forthcoming.

The same cannot be said for the soaps in the bathroom, an earlier but ongoing durational work from the artist. Elsewhere things become a bit more confrontational, two large full-colour images on embroidery mesh adhered to thick fabric mattress wadding stretch out the time between two sequential frames of moving image images. Sitting amongst them is a wax vase-like vessel with smooth guts and rough external faces. A single engraved drawing wrapping around its swollen diameter, the cart before the horse.

This talismanic object depicts a recently published patent (2023) for a speculative horse-powered vehicle, where the required clean energy for forward motion is generated by an actual horse on a treadmill behind the driver via gyroscopic generators. Simultaneously replaying the common analogy for doing things the wrong way around or worse, getting ahead of yourself. Described as talismanic, as it represents the sticky and illusive territory Fuller’s practice likes to inhabit. For several years, the artist has been wading through the ever-evolving data stack of newly filed or renewed patents, through different seasons and states of mind, as if landscapes for painting. Filtering ambitions and speculations for protection — the playful and the absurd — the logical and the surreal.

These sensations are anchored into copper, beeswax, and earth minerals — the original subjects long left behind in these cut-up translations, which perhaps start to work against human exceptionalism and highlight the awkward pace of innovation; one finger in the plug socket and another touching earth. In this other world, everything is momentarily stable, but it can all be over in an instant, crushed like an empty can of soda or deformed by careless placement in the midday sun”.

South Parade is found at Griffin House, 79 Saffron Hill, Farringdon, London, EC1R 5BU. The gallery is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 11am until 6pm

And while we are here, have you checked out that Emma Harvey show yet? – ORGAN THING: 43 photos from the opening of Emma Harvey’s I Am The Beast I Worship exhibition at WIA Gallery…