Onward with the London Gallery Weekend  thing and it is still the ‘whatever the question’ question that was asked in Part One and agapanthus are still very much the answer to every question and well, as we said in part one, whatever ever this self congratulating thing that is London Gallery Weekend is, it is underway now and I guess some of the spaces are operating longer opening hours and maybe opening on a Sunday when most of the year they don’t so Sundays, who knows what else is different? Smiling gallerinas waiting to greet you with fairy cakes? On we go, no more cynical smiles, I promise to be positive, I always am when exploring what the establishment have to offer the London Art Scene..

Actually, before we turn to the establishment, the now nomadic artist-led thing that is Transition Gallery have a show on this week, good to see Transition is still a thing, they’re at that criminally underused/over priced Space pop up space right now, the pop up space that most of us can’t afford to hire and pop up in so most of the time the shutters are down and their fancy neon sign along with their white walls go to waste. Transition have had a variety of homes around the Hackney area for a dozen or so years now, they have a group show called Hard Candy open right now, the featured piece of art on the show posters is another of Rosemary Cronin‘s footwear pieces (we first encountered her delicious pickled high heels at a Transition show a few years back now, there’s been one or two positive encounters at Transition shows). Love her Hard Candy boots, shame the piece is kind of lost behind the window bars of the actual show, crying out to be on a plinth in the middle of the room rather than obscured behind bars on the window sill. It is a bit of a cold hang actually, Rosemary’s other piece just propped like a bit of an afterthought when there appears to be plenty of space on the actual wall. Took me a couple of goes to catch the show open as well, hey, who am I to question these things and it wasn’t like it was a long walk to the space and there are one or two rather rewarding pieces in there. The group show features Lucy Cade, Jennifer Caroline Campbell, Rosemary Cronin, Cathy Lomax, Gavin Maughfling, Alex Michon, Paul Murphy (oh for a small unobtrusive label on the pieces of work, an artist credit? Is that really too hard an ask?) and well, the exhibition runs until Sunday June 2nd which I guess takes in the London Gallery Weekend they’re not officially part of.

“I don’t want realism. I want magic!” cries Blanche DuBois, the flawed heroine of Tennessee Williams’ play A Streetcar Named Desire – The Hard Candy exhibition is apparently named after a Tennessee Williams short story, we’re told we find seven artists and their musings on Williams, his works, characters and companions. “Williams was born in Mississippi in the American South, and his work is infused with the febrile atmosphere of this region. In this translocation to the cooler climes of East London, Williams’ themes of social niceties, sexual encounters, fragile mental health and magic, still resonate” – well that’s what the gallery statement says. Not sure the show as one whole thing ignited anything in me, it seemed polite, a little unsure of itself, one or two pieces stood out it is really only Rosemary’s candy-filled boots that really excite.

Actually in terms of the galleries actually official taking part in the weekend the first stop is a Friday afternoon opening at Annka Kultys Gallery, more of that one and others in a moment when we really do get our teeth in to the weekend, lets post about Hard Candy first, that one closes this Sunday, you might still have time to see those brilliant boots… (sw)

Space Pop-up is at 129 Mare Street, Hackney, London E8 3RH, right where Space once had a beautiful gallery before they abandoned art and proper engagement in this part of town (oh ho those big yellow #LondonNeedsArtists signs above Space’s now closed big gallery space rubs salt in the wound of every London artist).

As we always say, do please click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the fractured slide show…