Five art things, on we go then and never mind the bollocks or whatever we said last time, that was then, this, once again is about this week and next 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 as we repeat ourselves. 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 so are we into the so called London Art Season now, Was Tracey the kick off last night? is it no sleep ’till Regent’s park now? I never did get that, from where I stand it never stops and starts, it never takes a break, I guess those establishment gallery people head off on their yachts for a month to two during the Summer, lock up yer galleries, but that was said last week, we’ve been at galleries most days this week, but then again that’s been the case every week…

And we should add, that entry to these recommended exhibitions and events, unless otherwise stated, is free.

1: Francesca Alaimo, Gender Translucence and Other Stories at Farsight Gallery – 21st to 29th September 2024, with a so called private view that we assume is open to all on Friday 20th September (6 until 9pm) – “This exhibition, the Ruskin Prize shortlisted artist’s largest solo presentation in London to date, takes its name from the perception of gender as a semi-transparent screen behind which silhouettes are visible yet unrecognisable” Franscesca, a regular participating artist in terms of Cultivate (and Organ) shows, those large scale portraits, those big paintings that have a rather a lot to them, we’re rather looking forward to seeing a body of work in one space and Farsight is a decent sized (if somewhat obscure and lacking in terms of communication or basic information or woring out what the space is actually called this week!) art space at the far end of Denmark Street, just off Charing Cross Road (not far from The Astoria if only the Astoria was still standing) 

The actual Farsight address is 34 Flitcroft Street, London, WC2H 8DJ. The Gallery is open midday until 6pm daily. 

And it hopefully goes without saying that both the already covered just opened Tracey Emin show at White Cube and the gloriously rewarding Norman Ackroyd show just up the road at Eames Fine Art are both highly recommended.

ORGAN THING: Tracey Emin, I followed you to the end, opening night at White Cube Bermondsey – it isn’t loud, it isn’t dramatic (although it obviously is), it is almost hushed, intimate, I can’t say beautiful but those lines and the way she moves paint, the sense of the loaded brush and the energy spent…

ORGAN THING: Norman Ackroyd’s Notes on Water at Bermondsey’s Eames Fine Art. Sadly we lost Norman this week, he was one of our finest landscape artists and although not intended to be, this is a very fitting celebration of the man and his beautifully powerful work, do go and see it if you can…

2: Susie Green, Play Time at Union Gallery –  The show runs from 20th September until 19th October 2024 with an opening night on Friday 20th 6pm until 9pm) – “Green’s work often has an amped-up, biographical form, with commanding characters taking up space unapologetically. Throughout her work, empowerment through dress, fetish, and disguise returns as a regular preoccupation, with bodies adorned in preparation for scenarios of pleasure, abandon, and release. Figures are shapeshifting and expansive, often appearing on the brink of transcending the confines of their skin or melting into contained worlds. Her background as a lead singer in UK punk and pop bands informs her work, allowing for reflections on emotional expression and performance of self”.

Union Gallery is found at 94 Teesdale Street, London, E2 6PU. The gallery is open midday until 6pm Tuesday to Saturday.

3: Mikey Cuddihy, Don’t I know Myself? at domobaal – From 21st September until 2nd November 2024, with an opening event on Saturday 21st (Midday until 6pm) – “Domo Baal is delighted, proud (and tickled pink) to present Mikey Cuddihy’s second solo exhibition in the gallery ‘Don’t I know Myself?’ (named after a painting Cuddihy made in 1998), following on from Broadsheet early last year. Alas, we cannot look into the future as much as we try to, and think we understand of the present. However we can and do look back at the past (whether recent or far distant, personal or political) through the precision lens that the present allows. Identity is explored through its making, doing and thinking and delivered via its materiality. Works by Mikey Cuddihy have been acquired by: Arts Council England, Contemporary Art Society, Deutsche Bank, Momart in London, Leicestershire Education Authority, Queen Elizabeth Hospital Cancer Centre in Birmingham, Thomas Frangenberg Collection, Soho House in London”.

domobaal is found at 3 John Street, London, WC1N 2ES. The gallery is open on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Midday until 6pm

4: Eva Bosch, Shoes and Stars paintings 1997 to now at Benjamin Rhodes Arts – 25th September until 25th October 2024 with an opening on 25th September, 6pm until 9pm – “rare showing for this London-based Catalan artist….. exhibition publication online and in print with essays by Ansel Krut and Matthew Tree.

…..from exhibition essay by Ansel Krut

…’Each of Bosch’s paintings starts, and ends, with stories that are both personal and universal. Her protagonists are the shapes, the forms, she uses. They look pre-existent, as though drawn from a bank of universal human archetypes, but actually, they evolve through hours in the studio, morphing on the canvas, gaining and losing heads, swapping genders, growing limbs, until they find themselves and their relationships one to the other. Evocative and suggestive, operating through symbols and mood rather than through linear narrative each image unfolds for the artist as she paints, finding its way through her memories and influences, coalescing around her expressive urgency…..’

….and from Matthew Tree

….’Eva Bosch’s work, diverse though it is, has at least one unifying factor which could, perhaps, best be first described in negative terms: there is nothing fanciful or capriciously superfluous about it. On the contrary, in every painting, through the use of shape, colour and – on occasion -suddenly recognisable images, it is crystal clear that everything (and every thing) that she has painted, has been done so out of absolute necessity. At the risk of using an overused word, her work is driven, that is to say, mandatory for the artist herself, and therefore compulsive and compelling for the onlooker….’

Benjamin Rhodes Arts is at 62 Old Nichol Street, London E2 7HP. The show runs from 25th September until 25th October 2024 with an opening on 25th September, 6pm until 9pm.  The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday Midday until 6pm.

Previously on these pages

ORGAN THING: Richard Kenton Webb at Benjamin Rhodes Arts. Painting as subversion? The great other? Paintings clever enough to not need to…

ORGAN THING: Tricia Gillman, Moment Fields at Benjamin Rhodes Arts – the tiny details feel important, the layers beneath, the things you almost sense rather than see. This, for more than one reason, is a rather recommended exhibition…

5: Space Studios open studios – happening over two weekends on 20th to 21st September and 27th to 29th September 2024 at various times and locations in East and South East London in the various studios run by Space. Over 300 artists, 11 studio buildings over two weekends – “Come and discover work by some of the UK’s top artists – from internationally acclaimed names to new and emerging talent. See behind the scenes of a working studio, meet artists, photographers, designers, illustrators and creatives and buy works of art directly from their studio”. Who knows, pre Covid studio open days were excellent, more recently they’ve been a little half-hearted with lots of artists simply not bothering, always worth going though, artists you never see or works you never see or a flavour of an artist you think you know from formal white wall galleries but really you didn’t know in the least – if nothing else you can spy on their music and books, although you do get the idea that some of the artists may have tidied up and curated things a little too much. “Free entry, all welcome”so they say – for full event information visit the Space Studios website or read on down there….

So on Friday 20th Sept, 6 until 9pm and Sat 21st Sept, midday until 5pm in Hackney you have Open Studios at the rabbit warren that is Martello Street Stidios, London Fields, E8 3PE (the building Throbbing Gristle called home, where Peter Kennard can be found now). Then there’s The Triangle, Warburton Road, E8 3RT (just off Mare Street) where that (hardly ever open because no artist can afford the rent) pop up shop is next to the beautiful Gallery that Space closed when what we Hackney artists really need far far (far) more than expensive studios is affordable exhibition space! (that’s right, as someone who has been based right over the road from Space here on Mare Street for a dozen or more years now, I’m not a fan) You’ve also got open studios at Belsham Street, E9 6NG and Deborah House, Retreat Place, E9 6RJ. There also Haggerston Open Studios at Timber Wharf, Kingsland Road, E2 8BF, all aprt of the S;ace empire.

And then the weekend after Fri 27 Sept, 6 – 9pm and Sat 28 Sept,12 – 5pm you have Stratford Open Studios at Aspire Point, Jupp Rd, E15 2ZN, whilst over in Hackney Wick there’s Open Studios at Britannia Works, Dace Rd, E3 2NQ and Bridget Riley Studios, Dace Rd, E3 2NG (they’re almost over the road from each other) and also at Eastway Laundry, E9 5JH. You can also find Space open spaces in Peckham where there’s an open Studio at Haymerle Road, SE15 6SB and in Bromley-by-Bow at Brickfield Studios, E3 3UQ

Oh look, I know I was a bit down on Space just up there. but if they do throw the doors open and everyone is up for it, open studios days are brilliant, here’s some old coverage…

ORGAN THING: Martello Street, The Triangle, Peter Kennard, Kelly Sweeney, celebrating East London’s vital old school art studios, these Hackney spaces are important…

ORGAN THING: The taste of paint, the smell of history, Martello Street Studios open day, like we we said last week, these kind of days are vital. Peter Kennard, Throbbing Gristle, Walid Sati, Zoe Benbow, Jamie Boyd, Doyle and Mallinson…

ORGAN, Five Recommended Art Shows, Francesca Alaimo, Farsight Gallery, Susie Green, Union Gallery, Mikey Cuddihy, domobaal, Eva Bosch, Benjamin Rhodes Arts, Space Open Studio, Martello Street, London Art Scene

And we better get on with sorting things out in terms of these two….