Five art things, five more London art recommendations, five art things in no particular, five things that are about to open…

1: Lydia Ourahmane  – The you in us at Chisenhale Gallery. Opening: 25th Jan, 6:30pm to 8.30pm – “Chisenhale Gallery presents The you in us, a major new commission and the first solo exhibition in an institution by artist Lydia Ourahmane”.

“Comprising installation, sculpture and sound, Ourahmane’s exhibition continues her ongoing engagement with the emotional, psychological and political charge of material and place.

For her exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery, Ourahmane explores immigration and displacement in relation to her personal history. Influenced by time spent living and working from her family home in Oran, Algeria, Ourahmane’s new body of work investigates transformation through sonic and sculptural registers.

Informed by personal encounters, Ourahmane’s work raises questions surrounding systems of exchange and dissemination. Recurring throughout Ourahmane’s work is the impulse to address acts of displacement, in which allegories of absence and removal evoke wider issues of place and migration. In The Third Choir (2014-15) the blunt physical presence of twenty used and empty oil barrels is of equal importance as the recorded process of their transport across international borders. Ourahmane’s installation All the way up to the Heavens and down to the depths of Hell (2017), exhibited as part of the 15th Istanbul Biennial presents a provisional concrete and steel structure, referencing the precarious nature of land and property rights. Visited intermittently by a solitary trumpet player’s eerie melody, the work reflects on environmental degradation and loss of public space.

Works within the exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery resonate through acts of cause and effect between materials, the audience and Ourahmane herself. Central to the show is a floor-based sound installation combining audio from field recordings made by Ourahmane whilst in Oran with sound scores composed and performed by the artist and her collaborators. A single gold tooth resides in the gallery space, while a duplicate gold tooth is implanted within Ourahmane’s mouth. This work is shown alongside documents referencing her grandfather’s resistance to military service under the French occupation of Algeria by extracting his own teeth. The archive also refers to the documents’ current use by his descendants to claim French citizenship by right of blood.

Explored through a non-linguistic approach to narrative – such as the use of deep listening and visceral engagement – Ourahmane implements both her own body and the body of the viewer to ask questions including, how is localised trauma felt on a collective level and how do forms of resilience and respite manifest? Explored in relation to Ourahmane’s subjectivity and political agency, this major body of work pursues lived experience as matter and as form”.

The exhibition runs from 26th Jan until March 25th Chisenhale Gallery is at 64 Chisenhale Road, London, E3 5QZ. – www.chisenhale.org.uk

Danny Pockets

2: Danny Pockets – Head, Thorax, Abdomen – an exhibition of paintings and prints by artist Danny Pockets – opens at Atom Gallery with a private view on Friday 2nd February from 6-9pm. “All are welcome as always” say the Atom people. “This solo exhibition will focus on Danny’s painting work, and includes new and unseen paintings, alongside older work from his “Houses of the Holy” and “Congregation” series of paintings. The exhibition will run from the 3rd until the17th February (Wed-Sat 11am – 6pm). Atom Gallery is found at 127 Green Lanes, London, N16 9DA    The Facebook event page is here

3:  Charming Baker at jealous East – “Following the unveiling of over one hundred duckling portraits for his ‘All This is Yours’ installation at Soho Beach House Miami, internationally acclaimed artist Charming Baker’s exhibition is traveling to London. Jealous are delighted to present Baker’s beautifully intricate graphite Duckling Drawings alongside his 30ft upside-down toy aeroplane sculpture ‘Assemblage to Induce Mild Anxiety’ at our Shoreditch Gallery”.

At the end of last year, Soho Beach House commissioned Charming Baker to create an installation during Art Basel week. Created in two chapters; inside the House Baker exhibited 153 original portrait drawings of ducklings while outside Baker installed an oversized toy plane on the white sands of the House’s private Beach. For four days only, Jealous East will be the landing strip for Baker’s installation, bringing the works to a UK audience for the first time in the exhibition ‘All This is Yours’

Charming Baker – Sitting Ducks

The Charming Baker exhibition on from 25th January until 28th January 2018. Opening hours: Monday – Saturday 11am-7pm, Sunday 12pm-6pm, the opening evening is on Thursday January 25th (6.30pm until 8.30pm). Jealous East is at, 53 Curtain Road, London, EC2A 3PT. The Facebook event page is here

The installation of Charming Baker’s installation at Jealous

4: Dollyoili Open Studios – Friday January 26th/Saturday January 27th – “In August 2017, we acquired the unit next door to us, we have turned it into affordable artist studio space, which we share with our favourite Hackney Wick Artists Pol McLernon, Jordanna Greaves, Anna Maloney, Anna Choutova, Have your senses tantalised, we have a real mix installed for you, we have Olivier Adam, who is obsessed with making the functional sensourous and humorous, creates design/sculpture/furniture. Pol McLernon, makes mini operas, sound art, sculpture, explores acoustic and cognitive spaces. Jordanna Greaves makes colourful paintings,sculpture and installation that explores power systems and perception. Anna Choutova, is the founder of Bad Art, she explores norms, beauty and taste through Paintings. Marie Brenneis, deep in Phd Mode, creates Performative Architecture, exploring perception, architecture norms, beauty and wrong. Anna Maloney creates expressive Portrait Painting, working large scale with oils As always, our open studios will be completely bonkers and conceptual, we will be taking meaning to pieces! Alcohol supplied by our local shop, their beers are priced from a £1, their wine and spirits are also priced rather reasonably”. We look forward to playing with your heads The Event is free, and it will be very busy, Please RSVP to mariebrenneis at hotmail.com”. After party on both nights at Grow, Hackney: Friday 26 January – YARD Presents The Grow Down // Live Music + DJs // Hackney Wick 8pm-4am (Free before 10pm, £5 afterwards) On till 4am! Sat 27 January Ecoutez / Ikura, Nepa Tiz, Friends + / Hackney Wick 9pm-4am (Free before midnight, £5 afterwards).   DollyOlli Studios is found at Unit F1, 55 Wallis Road, Hackney Wick, London, E9 5LH.

5: Richard Batty –  Psychedelic Paperchase’ at Ply Gallery, Hornsey – Opening: 25th January, 7pm until 9pm, the show then runs until 30th January (11am until 4.30pm daily) – Batty exhibits his highly complex large Triptych for the first time. A complex and highly detailed work from the concept of the internet being a Library with Sirens and security cameras, resulting in a fantastical spectacle akin to a modern response to Bosch’s ‘Garden of earthly delights’.

“Batty’s work presents a highly innovative approach to oil painting on canvas, blurring the lines between fine art and graphic design and this is perhaps what appeals most to his audiences. The resulting paintings are a tapestry of modern life; chaos, hope, despair, aspirations, spirituality and the joy of everyday life all meet in a hyper dream-like world, deeply evocative and symbolic. ​ In this show Batty is exhibiting his highly complex large Triptych for the first time. This complex and highly detailed work stems from the idea of the internet being a Library with Sirens and security cameras and results in a fantastically weird spectacle of a painting. A modern response to Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’. The exhibition also presents works from the book, ‘Psychedelic Paperchase’, a funny and dark comic book featuring Batty’s fantasy character Steven Picard. The publishing launch for ‘Psychedelic Paperchase’ is launching at our Preview evening on 25th January”.​​ ‘Psychedelic Paperchase’ can be previewed here. Ply Gallery is at Hornsey Town Hall Arts Centre, The Broadway, London, N8 9BQ – www.hthartscentre.co.uk

More of this is a day or two, we’re still getting over all the intent….

Intent (part two), a Cultivate show at BSMT Space, Dalston, East London – the opening night (January 2018)