On with the London Gallery Weekend thing, whatever the hell it is beside a loads of glossy self-congratulation on social media, kind of says a lot that that the East End day coincided with the very last ever day on of the last gallery still operating on Vyner Street (and the one still left on Redchurch Street isn’t open this weekend, guess they were excluded from the “weekend” as well). Shall we go on with part four then? I mean, these galleries, as we have already said, ah, you know it already, broken records and the same old same old song, the price of chips and a whole hill of orange baked bean cans..

On we go then, pick up where we left it with Part Three, off to The Approach, off past Auto Italia, another gallery that’s been where it is for years now, another that doesn’t appear to be part of this rather selective Gallery Weekend thing – did talk to one long-standing highly respected Gallery curator who could be argued is more establishment and has more old school history that most of the others put together, apparently they turned him down when he asked about being part of the Weekend, more about that in part five or maybe six, we are only just starting here – there’s been a rather rewarding Karol Radziszewski exhibition on at Auto Italia since early April, it goes on until June 9th, really should say something before it closes, really should have done so already, not today though, there is no time today. Quick look at the new show that has just opened at The Approach and then back to work before the painting muse has another hissyfit and kicks over the cans (but that was all said in Part Three, that’s alrteady chip paper, get on with it!)

Off to The Approach Gallery, you wouldn’t really know there’s a gallery up above the pub unless you were in the know, I suspect, well no, I know, because I’ve asked, quite a number of the people who eat and drink in the busy pub have no idea there’s a substantial and often very rewarding gallery hiding up on the first floor, there’s no sign outside, there’s very few hints in the bar, and if the space is part of the Weekend then there’s none of the rather boring branding to be seen anywhere. Hang on, let’s check the past the sell-by-date salmon pink and placid pastel green event website, yes, The Approach is officially part of the London Gallery Weekend yet if you didn’t already know, you’d have no idea the weekend event was on and that this gallery was part of it, this is why so many people think the London Art Scene is not for them, it just isn’t that friendly or welcoming, art in general does not do engagement. There’s been some excellent exhibitions at The Approach over the years, many covered on these pages, seems they can do big signs outside to say the football in on but art must ever remain aloof, and yes, I hear the argument about the mystery of it all, the feeling of knowing about something, just what is the point of this London Gallery Weekend thing? 

The Approach has just opened an Adelaide Cioni show called True Form (on until 22nd June), frankly it didn’t look like it was going to be that much on line, the images didn’t look that exciting via a computer screen or on a phone via an Instagram feed and the weather wasn’t that great on the opening night and if I had a telly then I’m sure there would have been something good on and yes I know, never form a negative opinion from an online encounter, follow the positive signposts, get excited about the things that look interesting on line, they might not live up to it in reality but never write something off and don’t judge in a negative way based on a view on a feed on a mobile phone, I almost did this time. Only almost though, I might not have bothered on the opening night, we do check out pretty much everything on this side of town and hey, at worst the new show at The Approach is going to add an extra few minutes and a couple of thousand steps the the journey back to the studio from the Christiane Peschek exhibition at Annka Kultys Gallery (see part three). Let’s go see True Form in the flesh, the Approach usually delivers…        

“O image of mine, may you endure for the sake of my name, that everyone may love you, that people may stretch out their arms for me, bearing rich bouquets… You are here for me, as a shelter. You are my true form.”

“This is what Panehsy, Royal Treasurer from Memphis, under Pharaoh Ramesses II writes more than three thousand years ago, in his dedication to the statue that will represent him after his death. It can be found in the section on Ancient Egypt within the British Museum. The text reads like a love song to a statue. It has, of a love song, that total identification with the object of love and at the same time the hope that it will outlive us forever” so says Adelaide Cioni in her show statement

Those dramatic stairs up to the gallery above the pub do kind of add to the theatre of it all, that first glimpse inside the main gallery space and that pass through the door at the top (and most of the time outside of an open night, you do get the peace and quiet of this space to yourself). True Form is way bigger than expected, the pieces and and the show as one whole, it is almost a wow moment when you first walk in to the big high-ceilinged gallery room, far more impressive than the online images had us thinking…  

“True Form interrogates what goes on between us and the images we create or surround ourselves with. The paintings come from life drawings of statuettes that I saw in different archaeological museums – in London, in Sicily, in Turin, in Bologna. I made these drawings as I was standing in front of the statuettes, and then I translated them in even simpler lines. A translation of a translation, stripped down to the bare minimum”.

it does feel stripped down, bare indeed, it feels bold, big, the individual pieces feel big in this room, would it work so well in a bigger room, is this the perfect place to see them? And yes, it does help that it is just me in here in the reverential silence of the gallery. These pieces are far bigger than expected, they make far more sense now, they make far more of a statement now, far more of an impact, thrilling, they demand you walk towards that bold line, that step back from those lines, it is a set of true forms, they do hold you, it maybe is paradoxical, more than make believe, this is powerful. 

In the Annexe (the smaller detached room often occupied by a different artist) Adelaide Cioni’s meditation moves into abstraction and colour, “here too trying to strip down everything as much as possible. It is an immersive environment that puts us directly inside the work, barefooted. This is an open invitation to abandon all narrative efforts and simply perceive primary colour and shape” – I did remove my shoes, I did go in, I did have it all to myself, it wasn’t quite a feeling of being inside the art and maybe the colour took something away? Or was it the form? Do like the idea, kind of liked the feeling but the actual lines, circles, the whatever, welll let me politely say it was the big room that did it for me, the art it the mail room is highly recommended but you really aren’t going to know why by just looking at it on line and not being at oen with it in the big room…

True Form is Adelaide Cioni’s debut exhibition at The Approach, she’s showing new works across both gallery spaces. it goes on until June 22nd.

The Approach is found on the first floor above the pub, 47 Approach Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY, Access to the gallery via The Approach Tavern pub, there’s a brown door at the end of the left side of the bar that the staff may or may not feel like pointing out to you. The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday (although some places say Tuesday) 12–6pm or by appointment. Previous Organ Approach coverage

And on it all went, got to get back to the studio, today is not a day to be exploring galleries and well the route back to the studio is via the the once beautiful art street that was and I guess till is Vyner Street, only it isn’t Vyner Street now. A street long since was lost, whatever did happen to that spoilt talk-it-but-never-walk-it rich kid, that self proclaimed “friend of the arts” who bought up all the art spaces and closed them all down anyway? The little shit has gone a little quiet recently. Did we ever tell you the story about how he commissioned some half-arsed street artist to fly in, at great expense, from California, to paint a wall on the opposite bank of the canal because he didn’t like the view of the graff that was on there thatspoilt rich kid could see out of his office window? Seems what was on the wall was offending rich kid so much, that, at great expense, he flew in an artist from California and then a week later had a rather hilarious hissyfit when said expensive Californian artist’s not very impressive efforts had, as is the healthy way with ever evolving graff out there on the street, been painted over by someone else, he had a right royal tantrum in the middle of Vyner Street, came over to us at Cultivate -“you lot know about street art, who has done this?” demanded spoilt rich kid, he really was a bit of an annoying arse. So anyway, back to the last day of May 2024, the Friday of London Gallery Weekend and the irony of the last gallery left on Vyner Street taking part on what was to be their last weekend existing on the once rather special gallery rich street. When we opened Cultivate smack bang in the middle of Vyner Street back at the end of 2011, there was something like 15 galleries operating, by the time we were forced out, there were just three left, Nicoletti came along later, alas they closed at the end London Gallery weekend leaving the street with absolutely nothing in terms of galleries and very little in terms of the whole art community that was once so alive down that now rather sad East London cobbled street

And so the last ever exhibition at Nicoletti‘s Vyner Street Space, there’s been some rather rewarding shows in the space over the last three or four years, (and we are told Nicoletti will open up again in a new East London space later on this year), the final show is by London-based German artist Ana Viktoria Dzinic, a positively black and white exhibition called Repetitive, her debut solo exhibition in the UK. What we find are a number of very striking rather bold very black and white photographic painterly prints alongside sculptural installations in which she uses “repetition as a tool to investigate contemporary methods of communication and image production”. The work as well as the show as one whole thing is deliciously bold, exciting forms, shapes, positive repetition, relationships, different contexts, things unfolding, motifs, phone shots, Freudian Slips, intimate scenes with Dzinic’s friends, Wasser (2024) and For Tracey (2024) featuring images of the ocean taken in Margate, in a poetic homage to artist Tracey Emin.  These are piece that ask the viewer questions, that play with the viewer, maybe entice, entice in a rhythmic kind of way, intense at times, graphic, painterly, I like this, I like being in here, I like this space, I like how Ana Viktoria Dzinic has used it, I like how the work breathes in here, I like being with the work, I like the strength of the contrasts… Part five will be along in a moment (sw)

As always, do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show..