The Five Art Things thing? We said all this last week didn’t we? Other than things happening on-line, we rather obviously can’t really feature or preview forthcoming shows at the moment – we did say all this last Thursday with the previous Five Art Things post and all the “oh, I don’t know, this five art things to go check out feature is kind of shot to pieces now. The regular feature was supposed to be about five upcoming art shows that we were excited about, five recommended art exhibitions that are about to open, a selection of the five most exciting openings selected from the many (many) coming up….”.

Back in the old world of 2019 we were out at art shows three or four times a week, right now we’re doing very little other than working away in cold dark studios and checkout out art on line, but we said all this last week didn’t we? Did you check out last week’s Five Art Things? All we can really do is plough on. All we can really do is plough on with the on-line versions of Cultivate shows, with the making of our own art and with the exploring of art on line The Soozy Lipsey piece up there is currently part of the ReCultivate show…

And so, as we said last week, for now it has to mostly be about art events happening on line, and here, in no particular order are five art shows that are catching out eye. Once again we’re not talking a “top five” or anything like that, What we have here are five art things that have caught our eye , five art things, in no partivular order, that we recommend…

1: Sara Berman / Alison Lousada – [scene unscene] at Gallery 46 until January 30th 2021 – When we say at the beautiful East London space that is Gallery 46, what we actually mean of course, is via the viewing rooms on their website. It must have been over a year now since we last got to actualy physically explore all those rooms. There’s been some excellent shows in that space, the Paul Renner and Paul Sakoilsky show back in 2018 was a particular highlight – ORGAN THING: Paul Renner and Paul Sakoilsky – This is The Gate of Heaven at Gallery 46, Whitechapel, East London, now that was an opening…. [scene unscene] loks like it would have been beautiful in reality, but we can’t see things in the flesh and right now on line is all we have and blah blah blah, repeat repeat repeat. explore both arrists and the show via this link until the end of January, both Sara;s paintings and Alison’s ceramics look rather exciting…

[scene unscene] is a conversation around ceremony and space, depth and domesticity? Presented like an exploration akin to an archeological dig, this show featuring new paintings, weavings, and transformed archival undergarments by Berman, and editions of enigmatic volcanic vessels by Lousada, is tantalizingly set in the domiciliary space of GALLERY46 in Whitechapel. Like an excavation from which the scholars must extrapolate usage, the work is set out like evidence for the viewer to inspect, introspect, intuit. Ownership and meaning, these poured, manipulated, tenderized objects and paintings, vessels and weavings, garments transformed, require close attention. read on

2: Karine Laval at 22 Bishopsgarte and the London Art Fair and well I can’t say the soulless cattle market that is the London Art Fair, now 33 years old, has ever exited me, This year they’re forced on line of course which I guess takes away some of aircraft hanger cattle market feel I guess and yes of course there’s always interesting art and artists to explored if you really want to. Ive avoided the physical event in recent years but then I dislike most art fairs. This year’s on-line version is open until January 31st if you’re so inclined but her, why not just head to the perspnal websites of an artist or two or directly to the galleries if you’re going to explore art on-line, the fairs charge artists and galleries an outrageously cynical amount of money to take part. (one of the reasons I dislike art fairs so much). I did have a quick look before I had to go wash my hands, Karina Laval’ painterly ways (with a camera) did catch an eye…

Karine Laval via Crane Kalman Brighton at the London Art Fair – “Crane Kalman Brighton presents a curated selection of new works from Karine Laval, Ellie Davies, Rachel Louise Brown, and Giles Revell. – Quarantine hit the entire world in 2020 and travel was grounded. Karine Laval responded to this artistic and personal challenge by exploring her own small garden in Brooklyn, New York. Using her trademark artistic technique she created a series of vivid and hallucinatory interventions in the landscape and transformed verdant scenery into kaleidoscopic composites that oscillate between the real and the imagined, allowing us to travel during this period of isolation in “Quarantine””. Direct links – Crane Kalman Gallery or Karine Laval

You might want to check out this “Brooklyn based artist, Karine Laval is transforming the lobby of 22 Bishopsgate in London into a magical indoor garden through immersive ‘organic’ installations. A space to reconnect with nature, recharge and reflect”, watch the video oe explore behind the scenes at the London tower that I imagine you can walk past and view from the outside while take your government sactioned daily exercise

I don’t know, I guess i should check my cynical smile at the receptaion desk and hg oexlore the fair properly, truth is, as good as some of the art is, I just don’t like art fairs. There is lots of art to explore if you really want to, it is;nt what art is about for me though.

And dithering disaster Boris says we have to stay in until May so on we go, Glastonbury 2021 has jsut this second been officially cancelled, all our pencilled in booking for splaces for Cultivate events are pretty much errased now, we are just putting in the plans for more on-line shows. And oh hell, A “graffiti” exhibition on the Archers! The world really is in turmoil now

3: Peter Saville – Pop Culture Is the Great Educator at Frieze – you might not know it, but Peter Saville and Factory were an early Organ influence, back in the early printed zine days of the 80’s the fact that Organ 7 was a hand printed t-shirt, Organ number 14 was a cut up tape that came with a handmade collaged cover odd a lot to my love of Factory. Factory was an influence when it came to ORG Records although we never had the budget and I stupidly never would allow myself to dictate to the bands when it came to the art so we never did pull it off. Always admired Peter Saville as an artist and designer, always loved the idea of Factory. There’s a rather good Peter Saville interview and feature on the Frieze website right now, the feature actually dates from 2019 but news of it only just came this way via the Organ Twitter feed. These days attention spans may be shorter than ever and a piece posted on line on a Tuesday evening is old news and dead dead dead by Friday morning, we might take the internet and search engines and social media feeds for granted but we;re not going to apologise for making a feature that dates for 2019, hell, we might made an edition of the Yellow Book one of our five recommendations  next week.  Pop Culture Is the Great Educator: An Interview with Peter Saville can be read here

4: Jason Seife – A Small Spark vs A Small Forest at Unit London – I guess the over polished floors of Unit lend themselves to on-line viewing (and at least you can’t hear the awful music they insist on violating their art with when you’re in the actual gallery). I do like Unit, it might feel like an over-slick car sales room in there but they do show some decent art and they do say hello when you walk in which is more than can be said for some galleries. Do feel pulled in by the way Jason Seife blend things, the mix of digitalness with oil painting and yes of course it would e good ot see it in the flesh buy hey

“At the heart of A Small Spark vs a Great Forest is an understanding of the collective nature of humanity: in Seife’s mind we are all trees in the same forest. Whether from North or South, East or West we are, in essence, cut from the same cloth. This kind of ubiquitous humanity has been emphasised by the Coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19 has no concern for the borders that humankind have drawn; it spreads indiscriminately, irrespective of race, nationality, gender or religion, one more wildfire in our burning world. Jason Seife looks to take this renewed appreciation and understanding of cultural equality and explore it by connecting with his Middle-Eastern heritage. By studying the skills of craftsmen from different cultures and adapting these aesthetics, Seife is striving to find a way of making these processes relevant to new generations. Embedded in this process is the desire to absolve people from the anxiety associated with an uncertain identity; just as the pandemic was a great leveller, so too is art…..” read on and explore the show on line until February 6th

5: ReCultivate – and yes, like a broken record of someone blowing their own trumpets far too much we are going to point out the latest Cultivate on-line exhibition caan be explored here. 35 artists and over 170 very carefully selected and curated pieces of work…

More of this kind of thing in the coming days for art can’t stop, nothing can stop, it might have to evolve to fit the times but it can’t stop

And that was it, a sixth on-line show during these strange locked-down times.  A big big thanks to anyone and everyone who has visited the exhibition, a big big thanks to all involved in the show. None of the artists were charged a submission fee or anthing else, everything here was done for free, all our time and effort.

And if you do feel like making a small donation – We bring all this art, music and underculture to you for free, we really don’t want to clutter up our pages with annoying adverts, no one wants that, but it does take up a lot of time, hours and hours of time. If you should feel like supporting Organ/Cultivate (for it is one in the same) by making a small donation to help keep all this flowing that would be delightful, thank you.