It does feel like art hasn’t quite made it into 2024 yet,went to see the new group show at Moosey’s Hoxton space today, it supposedly opened last Thursday, two days in and they’ve got a sign on their big glass door that reads due to maintenance issues the gallery is closed today or something like that, kind of sums up the six days that have made up 2024 so far, they promise to be back next week, maybe that’s when art starts in terms of London? Maybe next week, or this week now, for this is the Monday of the second week of the year. 

We haven’t written one of these Five art things since late November, Smiley face emoji. 2023 kind of just gave up in terms of London and art, it just kind of limped away in am almost apologetic nothing. What does 2024 hold? I guess we just carry on? What else is there to do? On we go them and never mind whatever we said last time, that was then, this, once again is about this week and next and cake and yes you are right, at the end of last year we were asking if London’s art scene gone a little flat? Are the newer galleries a little too full of themselves and believing their own hype? Is it all just a little too conservative? Dare we say politely boring? Here, for what any of this is worth is our first five art things of the new year although so far excitement is a little thin on the ground. 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. We do aim to make this  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 we should add, that entry to these recommended exhibitions and events, unless otherwise stated, is free.Actually is there five things happening and worth a mention this week?

1: Condo 2024 – Well, let’s see, Condo is back and kicking off on January 20th, it hasn’t been a thing since 2020, did anyone notice? We probably vaguely looked and then shrugged our collective shoulders last year. Condo is back in that January slot it has occupied since 2016, we’re promised the participation of 50 galleries over 23 London (establishment) art spaces, we did already write a preview here, watch this space and see if we found anything worth covering, we’ll be off to explore on the weekend of the 20th….. What else is happening, well the previously previewed Pauline Boty exhibition goes on until 24th February 2024 – Pauline Boty, British 60’s pop artist pretty much written out of history until recently –

2: 2024 at Moosey, Hoxton – on now and until January 28th – “Moosey Hoxton is delighted to announce ‘2024’ Group Exhibition, the show will launch on January 4th, only it didn’t quite did it, hopefully it does get going this week, the show runs  until 28th January 2024. Moosey aren’t great at communication or response, who knows? It looks interesting from the pavementnd they did have a decent exhibition or two in the still relatively new space in 2023, not everything was brilliant, didn’t think much of the comic book dinosaurs that closed the year, we didn;t bother covering that one, the show from The Tvorogov Brothers was kind of interesting, there was Charlotte Fox’s intrigue back in September, there was Damien Cifielli’s slightly strange, rather painterly tales of Tarogramma and well so far they’ve done enough to make us want to check out what their group show has to offer. Exhibiting Artists: Amaila Angulo, Zac Yeates, Hannah Wilson, Billy Vanilli, Donglai Meng, Millie Kelly, Dylan Hurwitz, Line Jensen, Grace Bromley, Annemari Vardanyan, Ashin Kim, Nico Jullien, Sean Gannon, Gensho Sugahara, Jon Macgregor, Eric Basstein and Sunna Hansdóttir. 

Moosey Hoxton is at The Shoreditch Exchange, Hackney Road, London E2 8GY, The gallery is (hopefully) open Thursday through to Sunday, 11am until 5pm.

3: Misha Milovanovich, Pollination at JM Gallery – 10th until 16th January 2024 – Misha’s work has enjoyed quite a bit of coverage on these pages in recent years, we like her lines, her edges, her clean colour, her angles that never really are, she’s just been doing things at Saatchi’s place, she follows that up with Pollination – 

“Misha will showcase a solitary sculpture on a pedestal at the gallery, while throughout the week-long exhibition, the artist has extended invitations to guests from various fields to engage in collaborative endeavors.

The overarching aim of the exhibition is to cultivate unity and collaboration among a diverse group of participants, spanning artists, poets, dancers, thinkers, farmers, composers, gardeners, singers, teachers, psychologists, yoga instructors, doctors, and healers”.

“Misha Milovanovich works across several mediums, from sculpture to painting and digital art. Characterised by vivid colour, optical movement and energetic visual cadences, Misha’s visual work fuses a diverse repertoire of images and forms.

A cultural polymath, Misha is constantly engaged in observing society and its distortions of desire, lust and attitudes to the body. Traditional techniques have been studied and absorbed and although her work is partly conceptual, its execution always reflects these hard won technical abilities.

In her most recent work, Misha’s unique aesthetics absorbs a network of influences which centres around the primitive and mythology. These are anthropomorphic creations that exude warmth and humour and are a nod to Miro, Picasso, David Smith, Louise Bourgeois and Noguchi. Her work relates to the human condition and our connection with the natural world and ourselves. At the same time, it offers optimism in the face of contemporary absurdity”.

Everything connects to her biography, lived experiences, learned techniques, jokes, memories and eulogies. Misha is herself a ‘displaced’ person, having left Serbia for London in her late teens she still carries within her a ‘stranger’s perspective’ and perceives the world as an outsider, someone ever alert to the non-verbal subtleties of communication”.

JM Gallery is found at 230 Portobello Road,  London W11 1LJ. The gallery is open everyday of the run between 11am and 6pm

4: Jeffrey Gibson, Dreaming Of How It’s Meant To Be opens at Stephen Friedman‘s London gallery on 19th January, with a private view on 18 January at 6-8pm.⁠ This is good news and possibly the first big art show of 2024 to get excited about?
We usually wait until the week of opening on these Five Art Things pages but hey, not much going on yet and we’ve been waiting for more since he “won” Frieze London a couple of years ago – 

⁠”The artist is renowned for his use of geometric abstraction, inspired by North American Indigenous aesthetics and craft. Gibson incorporates text in his own version of Victorian era Native-made objects, which were originally created to appeal to the taste and aesthetics of the period. By embracing these objects that were once viewed as kitsch, Gibson acknowledges their significance and contemporary resonance. Find more here

Stephen Friedman Gallery is at 5–6 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LQ

And by the way, good to see that Jeffrey Gibson will represent the United States at La Biennale di Venezia – Jeffrey Gibson will represent the United States at La Biennale di Venezia, the 60th International Art Exhibition. Celebrated for an artistic practice that combines American, Indigenous, and Queer histories with influences from music and pop culture, Gibson creates a dynamic visual language that reflects the inherent diversity and hybridity of American culture. Using abundant colour, complex pattern, and text, he invites deep reflection on identity, inspires empathy, and advocates for a widening of access to democracy and freedom for all. The 2024 U.S…. read more

Jeffrey Gibson at Frieze 2022… (do click on an image to enlarge or to run the slide show…

5: Lady Lucy, Unwanted Gift at Five Years Gallery – Saturday/Sunday 13th/14th January with an opening or a preview or a private view or whatever you wish to call it on Friday12th January (6 – 9pm) – Stock cubes, condoms, I phones, chocolates, antidepressants, asthma inhalers, tea, dates, painkillers, satsumas, tomatoes, ice cream, granola, biscuits. The true luxury and the real potlatch of our times falls to the poverty stricken, that is, to the individual who lies down and scoffs. A genuine luxury requires the complete contempt for riches, the sombre indifference of the individual who refuses work and makes his life on the one hand an infinitely ruined splendour, and on the other, a silent insult to the laborious lie of the rich. Beyond a military exploitation, a religious mystification and a capitalist misappropriation henceforth no one can rediscover the meaning of wealth, the explosiveness that it heralds, unless it is in the splendour of rags and the sombre challenge of indifference.

Five Years is at unit 2B, 1 Boothby Road, Archway, London N194AJ. The gallery is open Sat/Sun 13th/14th January 12 – 6pm. Lady Lucy is in conversation with Paul Clinton on Saturday 13th Jan at 2pm