There’s a lot of hype around this latest show, there’s always been a lot of hype around My Dog Sighs and Jealous aren’t exactly shy or retiring when it comes to shouting about their shows. In reality I could almost write this review before I go to the opening at the East London space, we do kind of know what we’re going to get don’t we? I’m expecting rather slick, rather nice graphic photorealism, eyes, lots of eyes, I’m expecting eyes everywhere, doesn’t he ever get bored with eyes? I know I do (mine more than his), I’m maybe expecting a touch of rust, I’m mostly expecting lots of slick eyes. 

There’s absolutely no doubt My Dog is exceptionally good at what he does (and yes we were rather heavily involved in his early London moves, shows down Vyner Street at Cultivate and such, there is a pleasure in standing back now and watching the growth over the last dozen or so years) and I’m fully aware that here in London we’re really not getting anywhere near the full picture in terms of what My Dog Sighs does as an artist. His recent Portsmouth Findit thing with his slight return to his roots and his cans on the street and such as well as 2021’s gloriously ambitious Inside, his biggest project to date, in which he spent over a year transforming a derelict building, an old abandoned music hall. into an immersive world inhabited by his ‘Quiet Little Voices’, something that once again happened somewhere on his South Coast home ground – hey, why should we get everything in London? Get on the damn train I hear you shout, we missed Inside, the online footage looked good, it was during the slightly lost Covid years. Besides the occasional paste up or a low key appearance in a group show we haven’t really seen My Dog Sighs in the capital since 2019’s Nelly Duff show and once again here, as it was with that Nelly Duff show, we are kind of getting the restrained polite, dare we say way too safe side of My Dog – an already rather good artist you feel could do so so much more rather then just repeating these very slick street art flavoured almost graphic novel illustrations of eyes that he has here at Jealous.  

Yes, the show is a tie in with The Big Issue and good on My Dog (and Jealous) for doing it, art should collectively care about the important things, the big issues, it tends to isolate itself far too often. Some of those figures in the etes are the Big Issues sellers and such, but but but, does it have to be quite so safe in here? Quite so slick? Why is it that so called street artists so so often don’t seem to want to evolve, so many of them content to just be that one trick pony?  That Inside show in that music hall tells us My Dog Sighs wants to do so much more and yes we know these commercial London Urban art galleries like things conservative and well yes, if you do want your work in these slick London galleries there is an element of compromise involved, you do, I guess, have to play their game. This Jealous show features two walls of exceptionally well painted eyes that are instantly obviously My Dog eyes, they do look impressively good in a slick line like that, they do draw you in and yes, the figures there reflected in the eyes are beautifully painted. If slick photorealistic graphic painting is your thing then here you go, My Dog does his thing rather well, I have to say it isn’t really my thing, and we do need to point out there is far more to his art than this rather conservative show at Jealous would have you believe and if we didn’t think him worth your time then we wouldn’t be covering his art – you know the policy here is only to cover the artists or the bands we feel positive about and while this might not be the best art show we’ve been to this week, we do like My Dog Sighs though even if this show isn’t really igniting anything..

Meanwhile the Friday after the Thursday before, back on the borders of Hackney, Lucie Flynn and Ben Eine have a collaborative show opening at the born again space that is One Mare Street (see last week’s coverage of the Babak Ganjei show). The two of them have spent the last couple days working on the white blank canvas that was the outside of the space until they turned it blue. The show itself features a main wall of Lucie originals alternating with her collaborations with Ben Eine and his rather distinctive circus lettering. Now I can’t really claim to the be the biggest Ben Eine fan ever but here his work really comes to life with the energy and contradiction that is the subtle colour brought to them by Lucie Flynn. I like where Lucie takes the pieces, I like the way the two artists work together, I like that the show does feel more her’s than his and that he’s clearly comfortable with that. There’s something to just really enjoy, something in the things they’ve brought out in each other, a strength in their collaborations, a rather positive evolution in terms of Ben Eine’s instantly recognisable style, actually, maybe I am more of a fan of Ben Eine’s work now than I was before this latest collaboration with Lucie Flynn happened.

As for Lucie’s own pieces, there’s some strong statement, a rather defiantly beautiful energy in her paint, in the layers, and yes, for once, in the words over the top, the words, the strong statement you look through. She has quite a history herself of course, Dragon bar and all that, doing Damien Hirst’s work for him in the 90’s (one of his studio painters), respected in terms of her dynamic combinations of spray paint, acrylic, inks and hints of collage. Dynamic is the word, there’s an energy, an attitude, a flow, and yes, it does feel defiant.

Besides the one wall featuring the the bigger collaborations and the larger Lucie pieces, the room is full of small pieces, prints, work from the two of them, the place is of course packed for the Friday night opening, the heavy rain hasn’t put off the Street Art crowd, the curious, the contemporary art followers who don’t mind crossing over, there’s a lot of familiar London faces happily drinking the gallery’s beer outside on the Hackney pavement in the rather warm if somewhat heavy July rain. So far things are going rather well at Number One Mare Street, this show, Entwined is strong statement, a show that stands up to repeated visits and the cold light of day.  I suspect there’s more to unfold in terms of the show and the background to it, I do believe that’s a Q&A coming up (watch this space) and well, let’s see what happens next at that end of Mare Street or indeed with My Dog and his (hopefully evolving) eyes…   (sw)

One Mare Street is, of course, found at 1 Mare Street, Hackney, London E8, Top of Vyner Steet, on the corner by The Last Tuesday Society and the canal bridge.  Not too much of a walk from Cambridge Heath overground station. Lucie Flynn and Ben Eine are in the Space until July 22nd

Jealous is at 53 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3PT. The gallery is open Tuesday through to Saturday, 10am until 6pm and 11am until 5pm om Sundays. My Dog Sighs is in the house until July 22nd

Once again, do click on an image to see the whole thing or t orun the sldie show and yes yes yes, I know I needa new camera phone tracking system, this one is dying)