xxxBack in the saddle? lost in the limbo between Christmas and New Year? climbing the cliffs of insanity? Lost in the limbo of Covid and the confusion of rudderless government, will galleries open after the break? Will the new year be any better than this one in terms of art and galleries? The artist-led sector was particularly hit in 2021, the bigger establishment galleries just went on so it seemed. We shall see, we shall wait, we shall try, as artists, to be proactive, for now we are in limbo between Christmas and the new shows of a hopefully good New Year. Over here we’ve embraced on-line art exhibitions, hosting the ongoing series of Cultivate shows, the next of which will open here on these pages on Tuesday January 11th. We don’t see on-line shows as a replacement or even as a reasonable alternative but we do see the on-line shows as a good companion to our main events, we find positives in the way the Cultivate shows have brought artists and viewers from all over the world together and certainly the viewer numbers tell us the shows occupy a worthwhile space, that the feeling towards them is positive. And yes, in these times of Covid and gentrification and the lack of realistic space in terms of artist-led art shows our “main events” are tending to happen less often, where once stood empty warehouses and affordable spaces now stands a million coffee shops and expensive office space…. enough of that, that wasn’t the point today. Here’s three on-line art things to explore while we await the new year…

2: Aileen Murphy – Face not her own hair – on line via Amanda Wilkinson Gallery until December 29th – “These new paintings Aileen Murphy has made over the last six months function as vessels for the fictional figures she uses to investigate the multiple possibilities of making a painting. Faces appear in some as cartoon-like heads detached and floating on the canvas, their arms reaching out beyond the bounded surface. Legs stretch across the paintings, taking the measure of the picture plane – marking their confinement and stressing their constriction. These ambiguous figures are both created and trapped by Aileen’s method of fast mark-making and slow layering. The relatively small scale acts as a way of condensing her experiments with colour in which expressive brush stokes, watery stains and ink marks are forced to merge together and commingle with the floating limbs. The effect is one of both confinement and sensuality, offering us a sense of unease and anticipation, aptly reflecting our contemporary moment” – view here

3: Januario Jano – IMBAMBAS: Unsettled Feelings of an Object and Self – This show opens in physical terms with a private view on January 6th and runs until February 5th, however there is an on-line viewing room open right now so you can, if you wish, explore from wherever you happen to be.  View here

“Vibrant strips of fabric and thread are assembled into graphical textile compositions that hang alongside cracked monochromatic portraits and photographs of lush landscapes and stark architectural details printed onto cotton sheets. Angolan artist Januario Jano’s first solo exhibition with Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery entitled Imbambas: Unsettled Feelings of Object & Self takes its departing point from the term imbambas (from the Kimbundu language) which refers to things such as furniture and luggage that have an intrinsic and uncanny relationship to the body and self. While the artworks are aesthetically diverse incorporating different materialities and contexts, they share a powerful physical presence that resonates through time and space to present a profound contemplation of the object’s role in the construction and reinforcement of cultural identity”.

Januario Jano, (B.1979), is an Angolan, multidisciplinary visual artist with interests in sculpture, textiles and performing arts, video, and photography. In 2020, Januario Jano obtained a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Goldsmith University in London. In addition, Jano founded the Cultural Collective Pés Descalços and has been organising TEDxLuanda since 2012. To produce his work, Jano is interested in the use of textiles, fabric, and other materials to display researched ideas such as worldly topics, economics, and politics. Some of his other interests include the relationships between fiction and reality and human and non-human co-existance. He often thinks about the space that surrounds him and the role of the body in certain  contexts as well as the way he can interact with them. In order to show this, he often uses photography and videography as a base medium to create live performances, displays and installations.

The physical show is at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery‘s  Wandsworth space at 533 Old York Road, London, SW18 1TG

4: Sara Flores – Introductions – White Cube Online until 18th January – “One of the foremost contemporary artists emerging from the Amazonian basin, Sara Flores (b. 1950) lives and works in Peru, and is part of the Shipibo-Conibo People, an Indigenous group spread out alongside the Ucayali River. Flores’s intricate, geometric paintings on textile rework and expand the traditional form of Kené, a Shipibo term that can mean ‘design’ and whose etymology probably links with the verb kéenti, which means to love or to care for…. explore here

And while we’re here, those previous Cultivate on-line shows while we pull tother the next one (Cultivate and Organ are one in the same)

The Saturation show can be explored via this link right here

The Still show can be explored via this link right here

Links to all previous on-line art exhibitions from Cultivate, all of them are hosted here on the Organ pages…

Next / Alright? / Self / ReCultivate / Why? / So Why Not Do It Again? / (And With Good) Reason / (Far From The) Turmoil / #43Artists / Attract Part Two / Intent (Part One) / Accidental / Something Blue / Something Black / Red

And

ORGAN THING: Before the year ends, a little more trumpet blowing and a marking of ten years of carefully Cultivated art shows…

Cultivate, a sometimes permanently fixed in one place gallery, a sometimes nomadic thing, came into being ten years ago this year, actually it was Autumn 2011 when, following on from the Stinging Netil, Cultivate came into being halfway down Vyner Street. Before 2021 ends, we’ll just quietly mark the ten years with juSt some of… read on