Never mind whatever we said last time, that was then, this, once again is about this week and next and cake and yes, here we go with five more art things. five art things, five more art things happening somewhere around right now (or 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”. This Five Things thing is simply a regular list of five or so recommended art things happening now or coming up very soon that we think you might find as interesting as we think we will…

And there are quite a few things happening this week, thankfully not too much cash in on the Coronation crap, far less that expected he cynically smiled. I think we’ll start with the Jonas Lund show at Annka Kultys Gallery just off the Hackney Road before we head to Emma Tod‘s opening at IMT and we see the car park gang are back in action, they had something going seven or eight years ago, can they get whatever it was back or has that gift stopped giving? The gang who celebrate themselves have soemthing called The Gift, usual names, watch this space or maybe not, you know what the policy is around here in terms of what we choose to cover, if we haven’t got anything positive to say then we haven’t got the time to say anything, too many good things to spend time covering anything other than those good things. Lots happening this week, Benjamin Murphy has a show at Union Gallery, 94 Teesdale Street, London E2 on Friday that runs until the start of June, Pat Naldi is over at Tension, Penge, London, SE20 from Friday until May 27th, Here’s our five….

These exhibitions are free to enter unless otherwise stated…

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1: Emma Tod – Light the lamp rarely, let the shadow come at IMT  – Running from 5th May until 25th June 2023 with an opening night on May 4th (7pm until 10pm), “Emma Tod’s paintings explore the remediation of paint in a period of digital image circulation, with its accelerating speeds of transmission and shared attention deficit. Works negotiate this shift through stillness and ambiguity”. Emma work has featured in a number of our Cultivate shows in recent years of course, so yes you kind of knew we’d pick out this show as one of our five,shame gallery nonsense kept her out of this year’s Mixtape shows, rather looking forward ot her latest rather refined paintings.

Here’s what IMT have to say on things – “… as the light of a lamp goes wavering at night over hedges in the darkness, we are pushed and squeezed, devoured with long covetous eyes. Stuff become animate, dropped and concealed with a troubling air of mystery, thick and heavy, exhaling a tempting odour, expanding, subtle and warm, as if on fleshy shoulders… In twilight, the familiar becomes strange, distances hard to measure, time and space are stretched, layered, and collapsed.

Night walks in South London are an important part Emma Tod’s practice. Not only challenging what can be seen, but who should be seen, where, for what reason? Walking at night can be a way of disappearing, of becoming invisible, and of simultaneously becoming hyper-visible and singular. Night walking can be to challenge to paternalist orthodoxy. So too can painting.

Tod’s paintings explore the remediation of paint in a period of digital image circulation, with its accelerating speeds of transmission and shared attention deficit. Works negotiate this shift through stillness and ambiguity. Peripheral events, fleeting moments and chance encounters are brought to the centre creating new imaginary territories. Visual fragments taken from the internet, TV, and art history are playfully recombined and erased. Zones of exclusion are brought to the fore, challenging the primacy of centre over periphery. Exclusion matters.

Layers of transparent glaze are built upon carefully prepared surfaces in order to create a shallow depth of field that replicates the luminosity of the screen. Here, figurative and non-figurative elements meet, collide, and are altered by each other. Dynamic, subjective and fluctuating areas of colour and bodies of paint currently emerging can be expanded and foregrounded. Ambiguity invites us to speculate, to create meaning playfully, slightly, offering a counterpoint to the directed and surveilled nature of our digital lives.

The title of Tod’s solo exhibition at IMT is taken from Michel Serres’ (1985) The Five Senses, which speaks of the fragility of the empirical world and information technology in late capitalist society”.

IMT is at Unit 2, 210 Cambridge Heath Road, Bethnal Green, London, E2 9NQ. The space is open Thursdays through to Sundays, Midday until 6pm. The gallery is next door to the Chemist, don’t let te strange numbering system on the road fool you into walking past on the other side. Emma Tod’s show runs from 5th May until 25th June 2023 with an opening night on May 4th (7pm until 10pm)

2: Paul Trevor – Brick Lane 1978: The Turning Point at Brady Arts and Community Centre – 4th May until 30th May 2023 –  Now this rather looks like a must see, “This exhibition reveals the dramatic events which were sparked by the racist murder of Altab Ali, a 24-year-old Bengali leather garments worker, and pays tribute to the activists who mobilised around the rallying cry of justice that followed”.  Local East End photographer Paul Trevor documents how members of the local Bengali community endured racial abuse as a constant factor of everyday life, and the moment at which they mobilised against racist violence and institutional police racism. The exhibition brings together 75 of Trevor’s photographs for the first time, alongside oral history recordings by original activists.  The show marks the culmination of a major heritage project led by Four Corners and Swadhinata Trust, in partnership with Paul Trevor. With the help of volunteers and original activists, the project is creating a record of this watershed moment as told by local people. The exhibition, alongside project oral history interviews, short films and podcasts, will be available as a touring show, and will be lodged at the Bishopsgate Institute Archives.

Brady Arts and Community Centre is at 192-196 Hanbury St, London, E1 5HU.  The venue is open 9am until 7pm Monday to Friday, 10am until 4pm on Saturdays,

3: James Joyce – Heads Will Roll at Stolenspace – 5th May until 28th May 2023 with an opening night on Thursday May 4th (6pm until 8pm) – What we have here is essentially a pop art image we’ve all seen evolving over recent years, “James Joyce’s ‘Heads Will Roll’ exhibition is a celebration of his signature fallen clown face so we’re told. “James Joyce is a London based artist and graphic designer who’s distinctive work is exhibited and recognised globally. His bold and witty approach to image-making allows him to reimagine the everyday through a range of mediums, including paintings, typography, screen printed editions, and drawings.

The Heads Will Roll exhibition is a celebration of James Joyce’s classic motif of his fallen clown face. Each circular head has been metaphorically rolled, remixed, and thrown about, allowing the elements inside to fall where they may, and be re-presented into his signature bold composition. When pieced back together, the image creates a familiar image of a clown face – whether smiling, or frowning, is up for the viewers own interpretation and perspective to decide. James Joyce’s tumbling face became the un-official logo of sorts for Banksy’s Dismaland, in 2015, further launching the image to be synonymous with James Joyce’s artistic journey and style…”

Stolenspace is at 17 Osborn Street, London, E1 6TD (top end of Brick Lane to you and me, just around the corner from the bloated Whitechapel Gallery.  They say the gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday 11am until 6pm (5pm on Fridays) although it has to be said, that hasn’t always been my experience in terms of finding the space open.  The James Joyve show runs from 5th May until 28th May 2023, with an opening night on Thursday May 4th (6pm until 8pm)

And as is usually the case at Stolenspace, you get two shows in the two rooms, here comes the 4th thing we think rather worth checking out…

4: Ricardo Cavolo – Hyperteen at Stolenspace – and as we just said up there, this show also runs from 5th May until 28th May 2023 with an opening night on Thursday May 4th (6pm until 8pm) – Here gome the gallery hype on Hyperteen; “StolenSpace Gallery is excited to welcome back Ricardo Cavolo, for his solo exhibition ‘Hyperteen’, a tribute to today’s teenagers and their unique and unstoppable energy”, a tribute to your modern world, your grand society you might say, but then an overdose of living is making me… hang on, snuffing, get bac on the rails, I do wish they’d stop polishing that damn floor in Stolenspace, more of what the gallery say about Ricardo; “Ricardo Cavolo is a Spanish artist, who has exhibited his work across the globe. His eclectic style is based on relationships with folk art, traditional and modern tattoo culture, European religious imagery, tribal arts, and comics and cartoons. Ricardo focuses on portraiture, to visual describe various stories, characters and their experiences across time, using symbolism to connect to a modern and playful audience while also referencing historical and religious illustrations.

‘Hyperteen’ is a celebration of teenagers and the energy they possess, a force so strong that it can easily move mountains. This rare power only occurs during the ephemeral years of adolescence, a strange period when the body and mind are transitioning into the realm of adulthood. In this exhibit, teens are portrayed as heroes and heroines fighting their way into a world where they are desperately needed, where their unique energy can be harnessed, but are ultimately unwelcome.

“Adulthood is a battleground where enthusiastic newcomers are labelled as inexperienced, disruptive and irrelevant. As humanity faces faulty systems, outdated intelligence and probable extinction, it must embrace the almighty energy of its most powerful allies: The Hyperteens.” – Ricardo Cavolo, 2023.

Do we need to give you the details to never very friendly gallery? We did just give you them up there with James and his clowning. SO hard to eve nget hello out of them when you go in then, all that effort polishing the floor I expect, tired out their smile muscles.

Stolenspace is at 17 Osborn Street, London, E1 6TD (top end of Brick Lane to you and me, just around the corner from the bloated Whitechapel Gallery.  They say the gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday 11am until 6pm (5pm on Fridays) although it has to be said, that hasn’t always been my experience in terms of finding the space open.  The James Joyve show runs from 5th May until 28th May 2023, with an opening night on Thursday May 4th (6pm until 8pm)

You do know these (almost) weekly selections are in no particular order don’t you?

5: Abi Joy Samuel – And They Shall Become One Flesh at J/M Gallery – the show has just opened and goes on until May 9th  – “Curator Vittoria Beltrame introduces Abi Joy Samuel’s new body of work, inviting viewers to meditate on themes of sexuality & spirituality”. Over to Portobello Road for this one,

“Abi Joy Samuel is a British artist, whose figurative works entail a process of ‘forsaking,’ and abandoning any attachment to all that is physical, entering a state of deep spirituality. In her practice there is a focus on the naked body and the animalistic human nature, which serves as commentary on the true and primordial human state. Multiple layers are added to the same figure’s outlines symbolising the adding of experiences that make up one’s lifetime — once an event has taken place, it cannot be erased, much like Samuel’s brushstrokes. The addition of these happenings will become integral part of the subject’s persona. The repetition of the character’s outlines in the same scene also want to depict the passing of time, reminding the audience that the smallest movement, often unnoticed, has a substantial impact.

Abi’s new body of work focuses on the relation between spirituality and sexuality. These two seemingly contrasting themes are in reality strongly tied together due to their existence in the same realm — the carnal and the spiritual world co-exist in one’s existential identity. The relationship between these two concepts has changed over time through social construct, but it stays at the core of Samuel’s credo and view on life. The reclining figures tie to the imaginative ‘forsaking’ and is greatly used as a subject in art, especially in Post-War Britain with artists like Lucian Freud and Henry Moore. The audience of the exhibition is able to witness the artist’s take on the theme, but is also encouraged to meditate on their relationship with spirituality and what is means to them in the meditation room set up at the back of the gallery”. 

J/M Gallery is at 230 Portobello Road, London, W11 1LJ. The space is open seven days a week, 11am until 7pm.

And while we’re here, have you had a look at the latest Mixtape group show yet? The seventh of seven shows that make up Cultivate’s online Spring Season, here’s the link and here’s the link to them all