Five art things, back in the saddle now, no more broken eyes curtailing art adventures, didn’t we almost say all this last time? Well besides almost a month of having to sit in a dark corner, we did get out to the rather rewarding Sam Windett show at the Approach a few days back and we have been out exploring since then, we’re about to go see the Sasha Styles film at Outernet. On we go then and never mind whatever we said last time, that was then, this, once again is about this week and next and needing more cake and yes you are right, at the end of last year we were asking if London’s art scene gone a little flat? We are still feeling a little like that, are the newer galleries a little too full of themselves and believing their own hype? Is it all just a little too conservative?

Here, for what any of this is worth is our first five art things for quite a few weeks. 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.

1: Hatty Buchanan and Cecilia Sjoholm, Stranger Within at Rochelle School – A show that brings together a body of new sculptures and wall-based works by Hatty Buchanan and Cecilia Sjoholm.

“Conceived as a dialogue between Buchanan and Sjoholm, this limited run exhibition traces the artists’ shared interest in re-appropriation, textile and abstraction and explores overlapping ideas around identity and internal narratives. STRANGER WITHIN will be the second occasion that the artists have exhibited together following the group exhibition The comrades they were brave – We salute you!, curated by Cecilia Sjoholm at 44 Great Russel Street Gallery.

STRANGER WITHIN forms part of the artists’ ongoing interrogation of uncanny psychological states in which bodies are abject and absent but the viewer’s sense of self or scale becomes more acute. Across the works in the exhibition, cloth and textile become a form to be animated and challenged and the artists share an understanding of its ability to provide a protective layer that is remodelled in the space. Embracing often traumatic personal histories, ambivalence, instability and messy entanglements, Buchannan and Sjoholm dismantle identity to examine our fragile sense of self.”

Rochelle School is found at 7 Playground Gardens, Shoreditch, London, E2 7FA. The Dates and times run like this, Fri, 26 Apr, 18:00 – 21:00, Sat, 27 Apr, 11:00 – 18:00 and Sun, 28 Apr 11:00 – 18:00. “Rochelle is a converted Victorian school in Shoreditch, London. Thoughtful regeneration since 1999 has helped it flourish as a creative community, with the Rochelle Canteen at its heart”.

2: Amel Bashier – Ward El Juri at Addis Fine Art – 24th April until 15th  June 2024 – Addis Fine Art exhibitions are almost always rewarding, we probably don’t cover their shows enough, the gallery say they are “pleased to present Amel Bashier’s solo exhibition ورد الجوري ‘Ward el Juri,’ named for her daughter and translating to ‘damask rose.’ The exhibition features new paintings and recent works on paper”.
   
“Amel’s works are reflections on the nature and possibilities of freedom. She paints towards the liberation of women, symbolically connecting this emancipation with the growth and persistence of the natural world. The women in her paintings, semi-mythical images of bravery and power, stare boldly back at their viewer. The flowers, leaves, and twisting stems represent the vital force within us, and the promise of flourishing blossoms when adequately nourished and nurtured. Sometimes these natural elements come from memories or stories, which interweave her personal relationships into the narratives of the works.

Her art is as socially engaged as it is poetic. She explores themes of peace and freedom in the context of ongoing war in her home country of Sudan. The nation-wide war in Sudan has now been waging for over a year, displacing millions and pushing the country to the brink of famine. Hymns of Peace visualises this conflict, and seeks a better outcome. The artworks in this collection become like seeds, planting alternative visions for a positive future.

Amel’s artistic practice brings together pointillism, intricate ink drawings, and painting. Meticulous and methodical, Bashier applies thousands of small dots from the nib of her pen to create an imperceptibly solid composition. This meditative practice also offers her personal catharsis from the traumas endured by her homeland.

Amel Bashier (b. 1981) was born in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and spent her childhood between Jeddah and Port Sudan in Sudan, on the Red Sea. While she is now based in Paris, her intricate pointillist paintings draw inspiration from the strength and wisdom of her female ancestors, particularly those who fought and struggled for their rights. Bashier’s work has been included in solo and group exhibitions in London, Paris, Cairo, Dubai, Nairobi, Sharjah, Abu Dhabi, and Khartoum”.

Addis Fine Artis is found at 21 Eastcastle Street, London, W1W 8DD. The gallery is open Tuesday through to Saturday, 11am until 6pm (Midday opening on Saturdays)

3: Alice in Hackneyland – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore – on Saturday 27th and 28th April 2024 – Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore is said to be “an immersive exploration of memory through objects and spaces set within a Victorian house that was once formerly a pub until its closure in 1983”. Spied this one a couple of nights ago while walking home from a gig, a Jesus and the Zealots gig if you must know, just tracked down some information, Alice isn’t big on communication with her fellow Hackney-based artists, we have tried a number of times –  “It is an exhibition of installations, performances and artworks in which visitors are invited to reflect on the bonds we form with people, belongings, physical spaces and environments. It aims to recreate and re-establish these bonds through our connections to the familiar and the act of imagining and reimagining narratives past and present”.

We’re told “the exhibition offers a window into the past, by re-contextualising objects that resonate with history into new forms and connecting with space, prompting contemplation on how our dialogue with objects evolves over time and on the profound impact of physical environments on memory and emotions. The audience is encouraged to engage with the house and the exhibition as they delve into and reflect on their own experiences and contributions to the tapestry of human connection.

Expanding on this theme, the exhibition was curated using an unconventional approach. Each artist was given the freedom to choose an area of the house that they were drawn to or spoke to them, with the opportunity to either display or create new site-specific works from materials left within the house.

This exhibition has been curated by artists from the Alice in Hackneyland collective. The collective originated here in Goldsmith Row in 2019, but none of its current members reside here anymore”.

Featured artists: Alexandra, Rod Kitson, Paterson Falls, Christopher Rinthalukay, Luke Anthony Rooney, Jonathan Roson, Jared Swift, A.M Williamson, Monique Humphreys, Ruben Sonnoli. 

Find Alice at 83 Goldsmith Row, Hackney, E2 8QR – Shoreditch side of Broadway Market – The show happens on Saturday 27th and 28th April 2024. Opening times 11am until – 6pm – Instagram

4: Softer, Softest at Guts – 26th April 2024 until 21st May 2024 – They’re as annoying as hell at Hackney’s Guts Gallery with their holier-than-thou gatekeeper attitudes, their non-stop self congratulating emails, their refusal to label their art or artists, their insistance that everyone should naturally want to use a QR code or have their damn phone constantly in hand and heaven forbid if you say haven’t got one, then the middle-class ageism really kicks in. Yep, they are damn annoying, they’re part of the new breed of self-celebrating (rather unfriendly) curators, but but but, for all their annoying ways, they do put on good art shows and if only they’d cut the bulshit we’d rather like what they do. No idea who any of the artists are in this show but their group shows do reward…    

“Softer, Softest rejects the harsh, oppressive edges of modern machinery and instead celebrates the transitory, enigmatic nature of human touch and memory. Throughout the show, spectral bodies phase in and out of view; they shift, collide and eventually coalesce into shadowy, indistinct forms. Elsewhere, everyday objects are captured in hazy impressions; enchanting them with a cryptic, almost spiritual power. In each composition, you can almost hear the hushed breath, the strained whisper or the subdued rustling of fabric that has been captured from life and housed in the sanctum of the canvas.

Each of the works in Softer, Softest is suffused with a quiet, lyrical beauty; each like a half-forgotten memory stirred in a sleeping mind or a flicker of light glimmering behind an opaque glass. Painted textures in each piece are gossamer-like; colour spreads across surfaces like an exquisite, dreamlike web and delicate drawing marks thread together intricately. Throughout the show, shapes seem to bloom and curve gently; the turn of an elbow, the bend of a wrist or the edges of a stationary object are constantly rendered in soft, restrained detail.

In Softer, Softest, the ephemerality of the present moment is crystallised into a fragile, glass-like artifact. It is as if the artists have captured time itself in each composition; the fleeting present moment becomes a delicate object for the artist to examine and revolve around in their hands. In this way, the artists in Softer, Softest demonstrate a more meditative, contemplative and, crucially, softer way of exploring and expressing the world that they inhabit”.

Exhibiting artists – Emma Beatrez, Laura Footes, Kyler Garrison, Preslav Kostov, Vanessa Liem, Angélique Nagovskaya, Albie Romero, Elsa Rouy, Alexandra Rubinstein, Daniel Santangelo.

Guts is found upstairs at Unit 2 Sidings House, 10 Andre Street, Hackney, London, E8 2AA. The gallery in open Tuesday through to Saturday 11am until 6pm. They not big on signs and such, they’re above Chrome and Black. They say “Please join us for the opening of Softer, Softest at Guts Gallery HQ on Friday 26th April, 6-9pm. No RSVP required”.  

5: Hayal Pozanti – Tender Mountain at Timothy Taylor – 25th April until 2nd June 2024 – “Timothy Taylor is pleased to present Tender Mountain, an exhibition of new paintings by Hayal Pozanti. Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition in the UK and her second with the gallery, this presentation will feature seven large and medium-scale paintings, as well as three studies, depicting expressive landscapes and exuberant biomorphic forms. These lush, surreal canvases document the artist’s dedicated exploration of her experiences in nature.

Pozanti’s primary subject is the natural world and our relationship to it. In her daily life, she opens herself up to communing with and closely observing the environment: the texture of lichen, a stream of water, a glimmer of moths, or the old-growth maple trees that grow beside her Vermont home. With a remarkable sensitivity to space, she beholds nature deeply, entering meditative states of unwavering attention. She sketches en plein air before returning to the studio to translate her impressions to the canvas using sustainable oil sticks. Blending her medium with her fingers, she takes a tactile, almost sculptural approach to pigment application, ensuring an uninterrupted connection between her mind and the canvas.

Though her sketches involve careful observation, Pozanti doesn’t seek to replicate the natural world. Rather, she aims to capture the world as she encounters it-as a sensate, dreaming, interpretive subject. As a result, her landscapes breathe with life. The painting A Dream Strayed Into Light (all works 2024), for example, features a gauzy path lined with ecstatic, jewel-toned flora, all seemingly uplifted by a gust of wind. In The Shimmering Shoulders of the World, an ambient beachscape at twilight is viewed through a fringe of undulating branches. Lips to Breathe Her Name centres on a limber flower whose petals recall feminine anatomy.

“My paintings are love letters to the Earth,” the artist explains. “I make them to celebrate, remember, and immortalise the beauty of the natural world… As I exist within the world, everything in it exists within me. This feeling of oneness and the urgency to embrace it blossoms in my work.” Beneath the enchantment that characterises these paintings, however, there is an element of melancholy. By emphasising our indivisibility from nature and revelling in its beauty, Pozanti hopes to inspire care for our environment and for all that is nonhuman in our world.”

Timothy Taylor Gallery is found at 15 Bolton Street, London, W1J 8BG. The gallery is open 10am until 6pm  Tueday yo Friday and 11am until 5pm on Saturdays.

Previously

18th April 2024 – ORGAN: Five Recommended Art Shows – Iris Schomaker at Huxley-Parlour, Marc Almond at Flitcroft St Gallery, Sam Cottington at London Performance Studios, Apocalyptic Changes of State at Brushes With Greatness, A Mighty Gust at Four Corners…

12th April 2024 – ORGAN: Five Recommended Art Shows – Hayv Kahraman at Pilar Corrias, Lick at Safhouse, Sam Windett at The Approach, Barbara Kruger  at Sprüth Magers, Hazel Brill at Workplace and…

And while we’re here, two things including ORGAN PREVIEW: I am the beast I worship, a powerful solo exhibition of recent paintings and prints from forthright feminist artist Emma Harvey opens at WIA Gallery this weekend…