Where were who or what? Drowning in a sea of press releases from artists and galleries jumping on the NFT bandwagon, that and press releases about who’s doing what during Frieze week, and not a word from anyone of them about climate change and the great big footprint left by all these galleries flying in for the circus while we carry on poking at things rather like we did here last week? Same stuff, different day (or week or year). We already said all this, we almost certainly do need to (or maybe don’t need to do?) do the five art things thing again don’t we? We probably should? The art of repetition? No one ever reads the editorial at the top, we could say anything here. We are kind of still repeating ourselves whilst under stress, did you even notice the repeating? Do you just cut to the chase every single time?. And well, we could do it again, who reads this bit? What is this Five Art Things thing? We said all this last week didn’t we? And the week before and the year before, kissing big ugly sharks since when?
Five art things, five more art things happening somewhere around right now, or coming up any moment now, five art shows to check out in the coming days, 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”, no, this is simply a regular list of five or so art things coming up soon that we think you might find as interesting as we do.
Five art things coming up in the next few days in no particular order, and still not a hint of selfie of any of us hanging out at the damn show next to a piece of art either, just five art things coming up…
1: Annie Morris at Timothy Taylor Gallery – “Timothy Taylor is pleased to present a new selection of sculptures, drawings and tapestries by British artist Annie Morris (b. 1978, London, UK).
“The exhibition will coincide with Morris’s first solo museum exhibition in the UK, When A Happy Thing Falls at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, and her inclusion in Frieze Sculpture 2021. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with a newly commissioned essay by the esteemed poet and art critic Rachel Spence.
Delicately varied brushwork and rich, jewel-toned hues vibrate across the surfaces of Morris’s sculptures, drawings and tapestries, which draw from the artist’s memories, experiences and the subconscious. Colour plays an important role across her practice, linking her sculptures to her drawing and tapestry work through a shared palette in rich shades of cobalt blue, burgundy, mustard yellow and earthy green. The drawings and tapestries incorporate figurative elements in addition to abstract marks and geometric grids: images of surreal frolicking women, flowers and trees mix with geometric grids and cryptic signs in far-ranging imaginary landscapes shaped by a freewheeling approach to line and form.
The exhibition presents a selection of paired sculptures from the artist’s Stack series, each linked by form and shape into pairs. The sculptures vary in size, scale and medium, ranging from patinated bronze, to coated plaster and sand. They employ a visual lexicon that brings to mind the opposing forces of balance: fragility and strength, grief and renewal, gravity and lightness.
The Stack sculpture series began in 2012, after the artist began using the repetitive process of sculpting as a way to process her grief following a personal experience of stillbirth. The sculptures’ bulbous orbs suggest the swell of pregnancy, while their seemingly precarious alignment alludes to the vulnerability of the body. Yet despite being initially conceived in the aftermath of tragedy, the sculpture series has since evolved to encompass notions of hope, rebirth and creative power. This balance is reflected in their physical structure: transfixed in motion, the sculptures seem to defy gravity in their upward thrust. In this uneasy equilibrium between instability and grounded, they express the uncertainty of human life in the face of mortality.
Morris is heir to a tradition of self-examinations of the female body as both site and symbol of intense psychological scrutiny in contemporary sculpture, in the line of Louise Bourgeois and Barbara Hepworth. Like Bourgeois, who remained preoccupied with the female body and motherhood in both her graphic and sculpture works, ideas of pregnancy and rebirth recur throughout Morris’s drawing, sculpture and textile practice. Luminous and expressive, the resulting compositions illuminate a world dominated by chance and the subconscious”.
Timothy Taylor Gallery is at 15 Bolton Street, London W1J 8BG. The show runs from 6th Oct until 13th Nov 2021
2: Özgür Kar at Emalin – Emalin say they “are pleased to present STORAGE DRAMA, a solo exhibition of new works by Turkish artist Özgür Kar. This is the artist’s first exhibition with the gallery, which coincides with MACABRE, Kar’s first solo exhibition at a French institution at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris”.
Emalin are good when it comes to new names, it can be a little frustraiting and maybe a little annoying that they, like so many of London’s galleries, never cast their curator’s net over their home town, their track record is good though, we ca nalmost forgive them – ORGAN THING: Evgeny Antufiev at Emalin, Whoever he is and wherever we were, he has to be one of the artists of 2017… – what we see of Özgür Kar on line coupled with the gallery’s track record has us more than curious.
Özgür Kar (b. 1992, Ankara, TR) lives and works in Amsterdam. He is a graduate of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Kunstverein Gartenhaus, Vienna (2021); Édouard Montassut, Paris (2020); UKS, Oslo (2019); and Taylor Macklin, Zurich (2017). Recent group shows include CAC Brétigny (2020); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2020); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2020); and Watermill Center, New York (2019).
The show opens on the 8th October and runs until 10th November 2021. Private View: Thursday, 7 October, 6-8pm. Emalin is now at 1 Holywell Lane, London EC2A 3ET
3: Derek Boshier – Icarus and K Pop at Gazelli Art House – This Autumn, Mayfair’s Gazelli Art House tell us they are “pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by British- born, Los Angeles-based artist Derek Boshier”.
“Blending Greek mythology with South Korean mainstream entertainment, Icarus and K Pop features two series made of vibrant acrylic paintings on canvas as well as black and white drawings on paper. Continuing the artist’s exploration into the function of images, the show orchestrates an unlikely conversation between consumerist imagery, cartoon-like motifs, and pencil renditions of 19th – century paintings including William Blake’s The Ghost of a Flea and Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. The exhibition offers a critical and playful commentary on global contemporary culture which comes complete with a programme of talks and events to be announced” – We guess you go to the gallery’s website for more about the talks and events, personally I prefer to go look in the silence when there are no talks.
Gazelli Art House is right in the middle of it all in Mayfair, find it at 39 Dover Street, London W1S 4NN. The show runs from the 7th october until 14th November so I guess they’ll be taking part in the Mayfair Gallery Hop that’s coming up in a couple of weeks, Thursday 14th october to be exact, will there be green baloons again? I won’t mention the time the Gazelli blockhead on the door wouldn’t let me in, said I was obviously there just for the drink. Last thing I go to galleries for is the warm chepa wine and cra plarger they dish out. Did like that James Ostrer show a couple of years back 9I wouldn’t let me in ot a gallery if I saw me coming either). Bring on the K pop. The Peter Burr thing looks good as well, bring on the animators. (did we ever tell you this Organ thing started half way between the animation department and the textiles department, an argument over a Twefth Night t-shirt?).
STOP PRESS: Went to the show this morning, stands up well very well in the flesh, more in a bit, there is always more…
3 and a bit: Gazell.io is pleased to announce artist and computer animator Peter Burr, who will be taking over the Gazell.io Project Space this fall. Burr’s display – a computational artwork, DIRTSCRAPER – is a theorised landscape of an urban development living and dying within a game engine.
“Originally presented as a multi-channel installation, Gazell.io will exhibit an approximately 90 minute long, cyclical single channel version of the artwork projected on the walls of the project space, immersing the visitor in the architecture of the artwork and in the many mythologies created in this dystopian space.
DIRTSCRAPER simulates an underground structure whose ‘smart architecture’ is overseen by artificial intelligences – spatial and social designers that observe, learn, and make changes to the system. The viewer observes the residents that move through spaces varied economies and class hierarchies, who are unaware of the control exerted by these AI entities. Periodically this system interjects one of the 48 cinematic interludes that reveal different facets of life in this decaying arcology. Members from the virtual community tell the tale of their surroundings, relationships, and mental health in an attempt to quell the constant noise of their precarious circumstances. The artwork, as a whole, emulates a collective body that has been subjected to the inner workings of a gridded simulation: housing blocks are overrun by industry, residents are displaced, the individual withers. What remains is the story of a constantly kinetic city and the people that persist as inhabitants. The nature of the display makes the visitor quite literally feel as if they are immersed within the infrastructure of this game, almost as an active participant in the never-ending labyrinth Burr has created.
The aesthetic Burr uses so frequently across his body of work, including DIRTSCRAPER, pays homage to the early days of the internet and computer games. Burr has often been related to the artists of the net art movement which emerged during the late 70s and 80s in response to the development of end-user based systems. The work channels the undeniable significance and impact video games have had on digital art. Video Games, like painting, can evoke strong and emotive feelings”.
4: Andrew McIntosh – God Shaped Holes at James Freeman Gallery – An exhibition of new paintings by the Scottish artist Andrew McIntosh. Andrew’s new paintings delve into the human fascination for exploration and the unknown, combining high and low culture, entertainment with existentialism, to excavate antiquity as if by a caravan road trip.
The gallery say “in ‘God Shaped Holes’, Andrew traces a link between the fascination for exploration and the need to address the grander mysteries of life through reference to mythical structures from antiquity. One of the central paintings of the show is a monumental interpretation of the Tower of Babel, reminiscent of Renaissance painters such as Tobias Verhaecht or Pieter Brueghel the Elder but depicting the tower as an enormous termite mound, suggesting that no matter the smallness of a life and its labours, the urge to reach for the Heavens is a basic instinct, fruit of divine design. In accompanying works, a mobile home opens up to reveal an ancient feline temple inside, with a statue of the Egyptian cat goddess Bastet seated in the centre. A separate caravan affords glimpses into the catacombs of the Colisseum, while smaller caravans become the unexpected hosts for Easter Island Moai or the monolith of Tialoc from Mexico. All were once constructed as a means of making sense of the spiritual wilderness, only to then become mysteries themselves over time.
The landscapes Andrew uses also articulate the excitement of exploration, by being the place where discoveries can be made and answers found. His caravans find themselves deposited in misty Northern scenes reminiscent of Friedrich or Hammershoi, and in lush Renaissance vistas taken from Boticelli. The second pivotal work in the show is a giant Highland panorama, peppered with glowing orbs of light like supernatural fireflies as if alive with supernatural energy. It echoes Albert Bierstadt’s paintings, especially ‘A Storm in the Rocky Mountains, Mt. Rosalie’ (1866), painted to spark interest in the promise of California. But in Andrew’s work the location is non-specific, and is rather a purification of the excitement that such prospects present. Entitled ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ it captures both the grand ambition of forging paths into the unknown, whilst also recognising that there is something intuitive, almost childlike but nonetheless profound, in the need to explore and discover.
In this context caravans become the perfect vehicle for immersion into mystery. The motif of the caravan has long featured in Andrew’s work; they were a recurring presence in the Highlands of Scotland where he grew up, which explains their toy-like character in his paintings. But caravans appearing in the most unexpected and hostile environments demonstrate how they are vessels that enable pioneering and survival. They act as the perfect symbol of human hardiness and the intrepid desire to explore, an instinct that exists no matter how small or humble the being”.
James Freeman Gallery is at 354 Upper Street, Islington, London N1 0PD. The exhbition runs from 7th until 30th October
Have we covered Andrew McIntosh before? Pretty sure we have, might not be what you expect from us punk rock scumbags and ventures down Upper Street tended be to see somone at the Powerhous but the Powerhaus has been in many place since it was over at the Pied Bull and we’re not always dancing around pop art or street art or the spray cans of punk rock riot grrrl painters. And before you moan that almost all these painters are male this week, last week it was the other way around, it is just the way it falls. Damn Cay were good at the Hope and Anchor that time on upper Street.
We were still art students when we started this Organ thing, we got distracted br tours and transit vans and sitting on Marshall amps for a bit, we have kind of come full circle now, or something like that…
Search Results for: Andrew McIntosh “Nothing Found”, is our search engine telling the whole truth, could have sworn we had? Anthony Hurd is probably more in line with what you’d expect from us Suicidal Tendancies loving Skate Muties from the Firth Dimension reading butthole surfers. There was a time when they sold copies of Organ at Slam City you know, and at Planet Alice and Shades (kissing big ugly sharks befor you indeed), we’ve always wanted you to not quite know what your Organ is actually asbout.
Yes, we know Finok is at StolenSpace, have to have a look before we recommend that one though, watch this space…
5: Anthony Hurd – Dismantled Identity at StolenSpace – The gallery say they are “excited to introduce ‘Dismantled Identity’ exhibition, by Austin based artist, Anthony Hurd. This show tributes the dismantling and rebuilding of one’s self” – all sounds rather Peter Hammill to us.
“After experiencing the end of a long-term relationship, Hurd struggled with the confronting situation of having to discover themselves again. Coming out of this sparked a long and complex relationship with identity itself, coinciding with the experience of PTSD, anxiety, depression and OCD. The unraveling of everything they thought they knew was ‘him’ or ‘them’. Hurd poses the question; that if we identify with specific relationships, body parts, mental states, social groups, hobbies, interests, what happens when it is stripped from us?
From Hurd’s own exploration they find that we are not the sum of our parts, we are more than our bodies or relationships. Being stripped of it all allows one to truly remember who they are, to start new, to dismantle all the things that weren’t truly working, and to be more authentically themselves. It’s that lovely dark night of the soul journey, but on the other side is an elated beauty in remembering, in nostalgia, and in the initial sparks of creativity that excited you at an early age. This dismantling allowed Hurd to reconnect with the things that made them truly happy, and reconfigure a new way to relate to the world around them.
Anthony Hurd is a multidisciplinary artist, who was raised on skateboarding culture, and currently resides in Albuquerque NM. Their work is focused on the expressions of identity. What we relate to and why. The skin we’re in, the jobs we have, the families we create. With vulnerability and compassion for himself and others, they’ve been able to put a voice to previously unspoken moments. Constantly influenced and inspired by skateboard and music culture to this day, and the perspective of being a queer, non-binary step dad, Hurd has created their own space to tell their stories”.
Stolen Space is at 17 Osborn Street, Whitechapel, London, E1 6TD. Both the Anthony Hurd and Fino shows run from 8th October until 31st October with an opening night, 6pm until 9pm on October 7th and another on the 14th. One day you’ll thank us for all this.
And while we’re here, a 6th, in all honesty this one is more about curiosity than recomendation, and we have no real idea what we’ll find so more a case of I wonder what we’ll find there? All about being brave and just going, some of us like to do that..
6: Some Of Us Are Brave – “CasildART is proud to announce that ‘Some Of Us Are Brave’ an inspiring exhibition exploring feminine, form and function in the production of Black women’s art, is back by popular demand! This powerhouse exhibition, which first opened in July at the J/M Gallery in Notting Hill, will relaunch at Stratford Library in October as part of the borough of Newham’s Black History Month celebrations. Alongside artists in the original show, curator, Sukai Eccleston, has opened up the exhibition to more Black women artists, including innovative emergent talents, Caroline Chinakwe and Sharon Adebisi”.
Find it all at Stratford Library First Floor Gallery Space, 3 The Grove, London E15 1EL – Gawd, that feels a little like a patronising tag on at the end, sorry about that, it really wasn’t intended to be, it looks and sounds like it will be good. More when we’ve been for a look. Sone Of Us Are Brave runs from October 8th until October 30th
23rd September 2021 – ORGAN: Five Recommended Art Things – Jane Dinmore at Jealous, Kate Bickmore at Annka Kultys Gallery, Alice Wilson at Domobaal, Patricia Volk at Pangolin,Charlotte Snook at Bermondsey Project Space…
THE ORGAN 
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