We could do it again, we could? Shall we? 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 9and the week before), 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: Sverre Malling at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery until February 27th – “Surreal, fairytale-esque landscapes and characters are rendered in exquisite detail in Norweigan artist Sverre Malling’s latest collection of drawings. Each image weaves together a multitude of sources, converging allusions to contemporary mass culture with figures and symbols from art history and literature to create a richly layered visual narrative that cuts through the currents of time. His forthcoming exhibition entitled Adieu to Old England at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery’s Wandsworth space in London pays tribute to the diversity of England’s cultural and artistic heritage whilst also questioning the authority of conventional historic perspectives. In the context of our increasingly uncertain and fragmented modern world, Malling’s drawings encourage us to embrace new ways of looking at the past so that we might imagine and enact a more hopeful and inclusive present and future”.

And it is such a shame to only be able to view this deliciously intriguing show on line via computer screen, to not really get anything other than an idea, a flavour, a hint, it is a healthy hint though it is very much worth following the link and exploring those drawings. The on-line viewing room is here

2: Rebecca Brodskis is also at Kristin Hjellegjerde at the moment, or she would be at the Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery London Bridge space (until 20th Feb) if we could actually go visit galleries right now – “Thousands of faces flicker in and out of our field of vision as we move through the world, but some imprint themselves vividly into our minds as we imagine and ascribe stories onto the interactions that we witness. For her upcoming solo show Arrêt sur image at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London Bridge, Paris-based artist Rebecca Brodskis presents a series of arresting portraits that suspend time through both their making and their surreal composition”. Right now all you can really do is explore it all on line

3: 90 Seconds of Art is exactly that, a minute and a halffeature on an artist broadcast via Instagram. People like street art duo Monkey Bird or “the amazing” Lily Brik or Sara Erenthal or 1010, so far it has mostly been street art, nothing wrong with that of course. Early days with 90 Seconds, they’ve posted nine features on their Instagram page so far, hopefully they’ll build on what jas been a rather healthy start, this is the age of art on Instagram being the be-all and end-all afterall, if it ain’t on your phone it ain’t happening or isn’t worth a stiff or soemthing like that.

4: Norman Ackroyd – New Work – on line at North House Gallery – Until 27th March. “This exhibition of etchings by Norman Ackroyd CBE RA, his twelfth biennial solo show at North House Gallery, showcases work from the last two years”. We;ve made n osecret for our admiration of all things Norman Ackroyd around these organic parts Seeing a Norman Ackrotd piece in the flesh really is a treat, alas for now everything has to be on-line, explore the new work here

Norman Ackroyd – New Work “comprises two of his annual collections: READING THE LANDSCAPE, 2019, and LOCKDOWN, 2020, as well as the small series of LOCKDOWN RAINBOW etchings and 20 independent prints, large and small, from the last two years.

The etchings of READING TEH LANDSCAPE, housed in a solander box, are interleaved with translucent paper printed with lines of some of Norman’s favourite poetry and songs from Milton to Dylan. Further printed matter includes a map and descriptions of the places depicted, some new and others revisited, but all, however wild, have a relationship to human habitation at some point in history. The etchings are available as a boxed set or individually.

The ten etchings of LOCKDOWN are somewhat larger but boxed in a similar way and again also available singly. Although based on earlier drawings because of the Lockdown, there is a concentration and richness in these and the independent images of 2020, from the tiny Somerset Levels (7x15cm) to the large Croaghaun Cliffs – Achil Head – Co. Mayo (45.5x77cm). He explains:
“Expeditions for the past year have been few or delayed and non-existant since March 2020. I have found myself delving deeply into my library of watercolour notebooks from over 50 years of exploring our islands. Contained within over 40 standard sized books (that fit snugly into my jacket pocket) are well over a thousand plein air notes and drawings from all over the British archipelago. In addition there are several hundred loose sheets (6”x12”) from watercolour blocks, containing a wide variety of papers, that I have designed myself and that I have been using increasingly over the last 15 years. Lockdown offers much time for dreaming and the drawings trigger wonderful memories of people, places and extraordinary events and adventures, often in hostile seas. Most of the drawings are produced with etching in mind. For me etching and watercolour are deeply symbiotic.”

Rainbows have often appeared in Norman’s work in the past but the LOCKDOWN RAINBOWS have a particular contemporary resonance and express hope in dark times”.

Harry Adams – There is a Harry Adams on-line exhibition happening right now over at L-13. The Collision Print Series, 2020, 86 paintings.. Each one unique. Screen ink on plywood panels..

“The original HA Collider was a theoretical experiment invented by Harold Rosenbloom Snr for the HA Protocol 2013. The methodology required Marcel Duchamp in one wheelbarrow and Edvard Munch in another, with both being pushed at high speed towards each other through a large cardboard tube by two notable contemporary artists (possibly Martin Creed and Anselm Kiefer, but any would do) until they smash into each other. Rosenbloom conjectured that within the wreckage of that crash a new egalitarian and timeless art would be formed: part mechanical, part human, and of great terror and beauty.

With this euphoric and apocalyptic series of ‘screen paintings’, Harry Adams launch themselves into the wreckage, taking Rosenbloom’s conceptual premise and applying it to the practical deconstruction of their own work. Disaffected by their recent landscape paintings, many featuring rising water & flood scenes, they have made cut-ups: taking photographs of the paintings, simplifying and reducing the images into a monochromatic world of bitmaps, and making silk screens from them. Using multiple screens the imagery is feverishly jammed, overlaid and collided into fantastical new realms.

All bearing the same motifs of water, land and sky: always the same – always different – always moving on to the next discovery, the next recombination – until the next….” Explore more over at L-13

And over here we are at work on the next on-line show, meanwhile, 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, including the Mark Burrell piece at the top of the page… Next up Self.