And then, once the doings were done with at Bunny Contemporary, once all the rabbits and the soup cans and the pure evil of the Peanuts gang were done with – The Pure Evil pop art factory rolls on at East London’s rebranded Bunny Contemporary… – where to next? Well let’s cut back through Rivington Street and catch that latest show at Autograph Gallery before it ends. We can’t claim to be that big on photography around here, Autograph is almost always worth dropping in on if we happen to be passing though, last year’s Ernest Cole exhibition was a particular highlight. Right now there’s an exhibition of some rather remarkable portraits capturing the rich style and joyous spirit of Lagos in the 1970s in the excellent space.

Spirit of Lagos unearths the story of Abi Morocco Photos, a photographic studio operating in centre of Lagos back there. “The studio’s remarkable black-and-white portraits celebrate the rich style and joyous spirit of a generation of Lagosians during a transformative period in Nigeria’s history. Operated by husband-and-wife duo John Abe and Funmilayo Abe the studio thrived from the 1970s to 2006. The exhibition Spirit of Lagos focuses on the studio’s formative decade — the 1970s”. There’s some wonderful images here although you are kind of curious when it comes to some of the colour choices made in term of that very 70s looking clothing and this really is more of a heads up than a review, a catch it if you get a chance, the beautifully hung exhibition is on until 22nd March, it is worth your time, Autograph often is…   

Turn left for home or right and Redchurch Street? Right it is (oh the dedication) and Redchurch Street where Part Two of Studio 1.1‘s annual group show This Year’s Model is opening? Part two is pretty much kicking on where the previously covered Part One left off back in January – Exploring this year’s Condo London and beyond Pt.2 – We’re still East with Jerôme Masi, Hello Dolly, Kyriaki Goni and Greg Carideo at Public, Hetty Douglas at Haricot, Faisal Hussain’s All These and… – it is once again a kind of hit and miss group show, a theme-less thing, no problem with that, and, as it almost always is with a group show, it is a case of cherry picking, that and once again trying to figure out who’s work is who’s. There is once again a vague printed list that means little when you get home and try and make sense of what you may have pointed a camera at, oh for a label!  There’s three Min Angel paintings over there that demand a closer look and some smaller work from Day Bowman who really is at her best when she goes large, alas, as we said with the first part of this year’s This year’s Model, it is a little hard to really engage with this space and the art, it is all deamnd jsut a little bit more soemthing, a bit of energy maybe? A touch of attitude. Do love that this space, after all these years, is almost defiantly still here as one of the few artist-led spaces that we have now but it so so often feels rather half-hearted and undercooked and well jsut in need of a good kick up the arse… 

On to Hales where there’s also a group show called Regions opening tonight, a group show and a gallery operating on a much bigger scale than their near neighbours Studio 1.1, Hales is an old school gallery, they’ve been around since 1992 and in their current East London location since 2004 (they branched out over in New York in 2017 and well, you get the picture). The opening night is busy,  although, as it often is with London openings, people are standing in the way of the art talking to each other and necking the opening night beer rather than actually looking at the art. The art on the walls is by Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, Magda Blasinska, Steven Claydon, Ken Kiff, Haroun Hayward, Rob Lyon, Kentaro Okumura, PIC and Laetitia Yhap, a collection of work that focuses on transformation, mental landscapes and artistic invention which kind of could be anything and everything and kind of feels like that, here’s another #43SecondFilm…

“Drawing on psychological connections to place, Regions delves into how the external world is internalized and transformed, from taking root in the artist’s mind and lingering in a pupal stage to emerging as fully realized artworks…”

And well, there’s an interesting piece or two, Wilhelmina Barns-Graham‘s piece called Porthmeor Wind Movement (1996) catches the eye, Rob Lyon‘s
Flute Note from this year is intriguing and those PIC miniatures that are actually ink painted of razor blade cases are certainly interesting and yes, another show, without massively exciting us, is worth going back when the space is a little less crowded although, rather like the Studio 1.1’s This year’s Model, it is rather disjointed, there aren’t too many conversations  going on between the pieces…   

Autograph is at 1 Rivington Place, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 3BA. Entry is free. the gallery is open on the following days: Wednesday 11:00 – 18:00, Thursdays 11:00 – 21:00, Fridays 11:00 – 18:00, Saturday 12:30 – 18:00. Abi Morocco Photos: Spirit of Lagos is on until 22nd March 2025

Hales Gallery is found at The Tea Building, 7 Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, London, E1 6LA. You find the actually gallery entrance on the main street itself and not in the Tea Building, directly over the road from that awful Boxpark place. The gallery is open Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 11am until 6pm. Regions is on 22 March 2025. Lots more about the exhibition here

Studio 1.1 is the last gallery standing on Redchurch Street, the full address is 57a Redchurch Street, London, E2 7DJ. This Year’s Model Pt.2 is on until 2nd March 2025. Current opening hours Thursdays to Sundays 12 – 5pm.

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