Five art things, on we go then and never mind whatever we said last time, Five more? Snake oil? Everything must go and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading and that was then, this, once again is about this week and maybe next week and needing more (just more, nothing less) and yes you are right. Here, for what any of this is worth are 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: Underworlds at Seventeen – 8th until 24th August 2024 with an opening on 8th, 6pm until 9pm – A show over here in East London, “Underworlds, a group exhibition curated by Ciana Taylor, will open on Thursday the 8th at Seventeen Gallery. Delving into the consequences of denial, it gazes at the possibility of shifting away from an unquestioned assigned rulebook, towards a mutually respected intuitive compass”.

‘Underworlds’ is a realm where distinctions between light and dark, inner, and outer, become fluid; questioning the paradigms that govern our interactions and perceptions. Moving through this exhibition, you will traverse a range of fictional artefacts scattered like dropped relics. Descending below, cracked, stone hands float in the space like spirit guides. You’ll see two lifeless fawns imposed onto a household rug by Grace Mcnerney. On the opposite wall hangs Joana Azevedo’s metal exoskeleton, a microphone enclosed within its chest cavity. A video piece by Ciana Taylor, replicating an Irish sex education video from the 80’s, plays from a CRT TV. A light box glows a pale grey. In the centre of the room a pew stands parallel to a mirror suspended from the ceiling, please sit inside, and listen to a recursive gnostic prayer if you desire to.

The next room is illuminated. Suzannah Pettigrew’s photo-sculpture gently sways from the ceiling, kept in motion by a fan positioned behind it. Three framed drawings by Ava Cowperthwaite adorn the walls, illustrating the human body amidst personal iconographies. The exhibition culminates with the last room, the darkest room. The room is guarded by Charlie Kleeman’s decorated metal chanfron, a piece of armour worn by medieval horses in battle, fixed to an arched metal stand. At the back, you’ll see a serene pool of water and CG video installation by Jamie Seechurn that envisions a landscape of desolate caves covered in ancient carvings – a world free from fear-based binaries. Each artist brings their own aspect to the shared semiotic network of the show, and each piece serves as a narrative thread in a tapestry of shadows. What happens when we condemn our capacity for darkness?

Seventeen is at 270-276 Kingsland Road, (Entrance on Acton Mews to rear of the building), London, E8 4DG. The gallery is open 11am until 6pm Wednesday to Saturday.

2: Lee Harris, The New Counter-Culture at The Muse Gallery – 8th August until 18th August 2024 – “Immerse yourself in Lee’s counterculture stories which form part of our community histories, and see signposts to happenings and cultural shifts which shaped and touched people’s lives across the decades up to the present day”. now of course, we’re going to be interested in this one, it the Counter Culture, indeed early copies of Organ were sold in many places in London including Lee’s shop Alchemy back in the last century 

“Explore film, music, spoken word performance, artwork, photographs, posters, comix and other materials from the 1960’s to 2020’s carefully curated from the Lee Harris Archive representing counterculture in the community and its various artistic expressions over the years and up to now. Lee ran London’s first “headshop” in the early 1970’s on Portobello Road, the building of The Muse Gallery itself a former site of his shop Alchemy, this exhibition comes full circle to show some of the early work of the graphic artist Bryan Talbot through the publication of Brainstorm Comix series by Alchemy Press, and selected artwork of HomeGrown, the counterculture and cannabis-focused magazine Lee published and edited from 1977 until 1982. From tales of theatre in the late Fifties and early 1960’s to hanging out with Mods in Soho, from playwriting to Swinging Sixties London and hippiedom in the Summer of Love, shift with the times and cultural changes over the decades and beyond the Millennium with spoken word performance by Lee Harris and the Moonlight Orchestra. The Lee Harris Archive continues to inspire artists with present day interpretations including contemporary soundscape by Hicham Bensassi, see signposts to happenings at The Muse Gallery from 5-18 August 2024 as the new counterculture manifests”.

The Muse Gallery is found at 269 Portobello Road, London, W11 1LR. The gallery is open  Tuesday through to Sunday, 10am until 6pm

3: Cultivate presents Switch The Other at Free The Gallery – Opening in Friday 9th August, 6pm until 8pm and then running until Sunday August 11th, a short sharp show, a weekend group exhibition and a Saturday art market, a long weekend takeover of the gloriously defiant DIY space Free The Gallery, over in London SE19. An artist-led thing curated by Cultivate and yes, this is another case of us blowing out own trumpets and recommending a show that we’re putting on ourselves, Cultivate is brought to you by Organ

The exhibition/event will run from the evening of Friday August 9th until late afternoon on Sunday August 11th. Another short sharp show, in and out, done in the way we like to do it. The beautiful space isn’t going to be to everyone’s  taste, we are not talking formal white cubes here (for the record I like formal white cubes), this is a link to photos of a show Cultivate founders Emma Harvey and I (Sean Worrall) took part in at the space earlier this year – personally I loved the feel of Free The Gallery, the space is in a building that is pretty much falling down in a yard full of so much history as well as left-field junk stalls and vintage clothing/antique/vinyl dealers and on Saturdays a busy alternative food market. You can read and see more via that link we just gave you…

Our plan is to hang a show on the Friday afternoon and then open that evening with a semi-formal slightly maximalist exhibition, the opening night will run from 6pm until 8pm, everyone is welcome, no need to get on a list or any of that nonsense, we’ll have an opening night on the Friday evening and then the exhibition will then run from 11am until 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, then we pack up and…

On Saturday, while the exhibition is on the floors, walls and windows, we’ll run an art market indoors in the space between 11am and 5pm – an art market while all the other things happening outside and the with the markets next door in the yard and the (excellent) record stalls and such in other parts of the building. The exhibition will carry on on Sunday and close at 5pm.

Switch the Other will feature the work of thirteen artists: AGATA CARDOSO, ANDREE ADLEY, DOLLY ADLEY, EMMA HARVEY, FRANCESCA ALAIMO, JULIA MADDISON, LIZ GRIFFITHS, MARY T. SPENCE, MIA JANE HARRIS, SEAN WORRALL, STRAWB3RRY POKES, SUZIE PINDAR and WOLFGANG WOERNER – some names will be familiar to Cultivate regulars or to those of you who have been paying closer attention to the artist-led spaces and events that have helped make up London’s ever evolving Art Scene so interesting over the last few years, some names will be new to some of you, new blood is always an important part of any Cultivate show. This time we’ll have contemporary painters, textile artists, we’ll have Agata Cardoso’s photography, Suzie Pindar’s word play, Andree Adley’s eyes or maybe her crosses, we shall see what she brings, we’ll Julia Maddison’s installation, we’ll have artists making their early moves, we’ll have artists who’s art has grown wiser with their years, we’ll have a whole mix of stimulating people that we’ve picked up along the way (or should that read artists who have picked us up?)

I’m excited about this show, putting on exhibitions, hanging paintings, showing other people’s work excites me, it excites us, it is part of my art practice (as is writing about other people’s art). I like going to different spaces with Cultivate, I like hanging art in different places, engaging with different people, art excites, art should engage, it should contact, it should, as Webcore once sang, switch the other.  Art excites. Do come along, everyone is welcome… (sw)     

Free The Gallery is down the hill at Haynes Lane, Crystal Palace, London SE19 3AN. The gallery is open 6pm-8pm on Friday evening and then 11am until 5pm Saturday and Sunday 10th/11th August 2024.     

4: Julia Maddison, Drying Out at Endeavour, Deptford –  15th until 30th August, with an opening on the evening of 15th August – an exhibition of Julia Maddison’s hand embroidered vintage tea towels, carrying tragicomic messages of drunken despair. ‘I Can’t Help Myself’, a short film by Gianluca Bonomo, featuring Julia, will be screened during the event.
The show will continue until 30th August at The Endeavour

Endeavour is found at 39 Deptford Broadway, London, SE8 4PQ. There’s a Facebook event page for the opening night here

5: Gori Mora, Burning Desires at Unit – running from 14th August until 23rd Sept 2024 with an opening on 15th August 2024, 6:30pm until 8.30pm. And yes, Unit is a bit like a West End supercar showroom and they do polish that floor way way too much and they do play some awful music in there, thankfully not too loudly, but they do show some good art in there, it does often make for a good start to a Cork Street adventure via the Bond Street tube…  

“Gori Mora’s first solo exhibition with Unit opens a window into a world of queer identity and intimacy. ‘Burning Desires’ is populated with the artist’s coded language of motifs, set at nighttime to explore moments of romantic entanglement and mystique”, we shall go see, watch this space…

Unit is at 3 Hanover Square, Mayfair, London, W1S 1HD. The gallery is open seven days a week, 10am until 7pm, (midday until 6pm on Sundays)

And we are now just 29 days away from the Art Car Boot Fair’s mail event at Kings Cross, London. Always a big day in terms of the London art calendar, this year it happens on 7th September 2024, more – ORGAN PREVIEW: Always a highlight of the London art year, the date for the 2024 Art Car Boot Fair has now been announced… I expect Julia Maddison will be there alongside many others, we’re told the artist line up will be announced very very soon…