The now and again Five Pieces of Art thing feature again. Well why not (again)? Again and again (and again and again), all this art flowing past on various feeds or wrapped up in press releases or jumping off actual gallery walls or wrapping chips or passing on the side of those Whitechapel white vans. So we ask (again) why not five pieces of art every couple of weeks or so alongside everything else that appears on these fractured pages on a daily basis? Can you think of one good reason why not to? Well besides the time involved and the this and the that and the dancing around and the skins on the tins of paint and the man at the door…

Five pieces of art then, a semi regular feature, just five pieces of art that have passed our way in the last few days, nothing more (or less) than that. Nothing really to do with an upcoming show or anything else (although maybe they are), just a simple, semi regular five pieces of art feature. Let’s do it again…

1: Stephen Friedman Gallery have a show called Run For Your Life !, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Franco-Senegalese artist Alexandre Diop. The artist’s debut solo show at Stephen Friedman’s London gallery over in Cork Street coming up in Spetember. And yes, I know the rules isthat this page isn’t about shows and forthcoming but that is a damn intriguing painting and well, what good is it us making rules if we then can’t break those damn rules and quite frankly Stephen Friedman Gallery and their Cork Street space have provided a number of highlights in this London art year that so far has been somewhat desperate for a highlight or two

Stephen Friedman Gallery presents Run For Your Life !, a solo exhibition of new paintings by Franco-Senegalese artist Alexandre Diop opening 19th September and running until 1st November 2025 at 5–6 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LQ (with an opening on September 18th, 6 to 8pm), this marks the artist’s debut solo show at our London gallery.Diop’s powerful mixed-media works delve into themes of history, metaphorical archaeology and socio-political change. Most importantly, it’s about the relationship between forms, lines and colours that allows him to create visual narratives. Drawing upon his experience as a dancer, musician and visual artist, Diop brings a multidisciplinary lens to his practice, crafting works that are deeply visceral and formally innovative.His rigorous approach to art-making—what he refers to as object-images—combines found and recycled materials such as scrap metal, wood, leather, and textile remnants with classical techniques like oil painting. The materials are sourced from scrapyards, urban streets and derelict buildings, and then transformed through an intensive process of layering, burning, tearing, stapling and collaging onto wood panels. The resulting works exist at the intersection of painting, sculpture and relief. Elaborating on his way of creating, the artist says: “I’m looking for risk and experimentation and this is the way that allows me to innovate. I destroy, advance and change. I create hybrid works that follow their own set of rules.”

previously this year at Stephen Friedman…

ORGAN: London Gallery Weekend Pt.3 – Back to the Stephen Friedman Gallery and the freshly opened much anticipated Jaune Quick-To-See Smith exhibition. Oh look, this is a wonderful show, an important show, a celebration of a show, if you get a chance just please go and see it…

ORGAN THING: Anne Rothenstein at Stephen Friedman Gallery. There is something captivating, distinctive, it is just a pleasure to be in a quiet peaceful gallery with her paintings…

ORGAN THING: On a wet Friday in London part two, on to Thomas Ruff’s expériences lumineuses at David Zwirner Gallery and then a rather powerful Jim Hodges show at Stephen Friedman Gallery…

And further back at James Freidman

2: Lee Maelzer – “This is finally finished. I know the world has been agog with anticipation…” Property Ladder, 2025, oil on canvas, 149.5 x 130cm. And well maybe not agog but a new piece is alway a welcome thing and, as I might have said before, I just really like Lee’s work, especially when she gets really into what she’s doing as she clear has with this one. Here’s a feature from a couple of years ago – ORGAN: Frieze week, Lee Maelzer’s Lost Sleep at D Contemporary. As a painter she really is a pleasure but as paintings, this is hard-boiled reality…

3: Susie Hamilton – A slight different flavour from Susie Hamilton, “Seated Figure, mixed media on cardboard”. Susie has been a regular contributor to our Cultivate group shows, I suspect we shall see Susie at this year’s Art Car Boot Fair that happens again in September in Kings Cross (London)

Previously from the ever productive Susie…

It is confirmed now, Susie Hamiltom is once again taking part in this year’s Art Car Boot Fair, she said something about the comedy of Shakespear – ORGAN PREVIEW: The artist line up for one of the London Art Year’s highlights that is the Art Car Boot Fair has now been announced. The comedy edition brings together Vic Reeves, Mr Doodle, Modern Toss, Pam Hogg, Juno Calypso, Pure Evil and a cast of around one hundred fun loving artists…

4: SLUTS – A collection of rather tasty North American rail car pieces by the Sluts Crew (Stop Living Up To Society). Various locations and photographers, a couple might have been stolen off of someone called Ted, all art is theft and social media is right there waiting. I like trains…

Do hit the image to see the whole thing or to run the eight car slide show. Mind the gap now…

Here another #43SecondFilm…

5: Sterling Ruby – This poster featuring Crying Slab (2025) was produced in 2025, in conjunction with artist Sterling Ruby, a poster for Sterling Ruby: The Mountain at Gagosian, Gstaad. The exhibition – the details of which are inscribed on the poster by the artist – included new sculptures and paintings conceived by Ruby “in dialogue with the Romantic tradition of the sublime. Rooted in the artist’s time in California’s Eastern Sierra, the works explore themes of germination, birth, growth, and decay. Crying Slab is a monolithic wood burl sculpture adorned with puddled bronze tears. Its intricate, altar-like form is evidence of the tree’s long struggle to cope with infection, thus embodying themes of trauma, resilience, fragility, and endurance. Crying Slab also borrows from Surrealist animism to reflect Ruby’s interest in myth and mutation” and I just really like Sterling Ruby’s work. Over here we rather like this just as a poster, just as a piece of work in itself (you can find a copy here)   

Previously on these pages…

ORGAN THING: A John Zorn and Bill Laswell session in front of Sterling Ruby’s paintings that happened at Gagosian over in New York…

ORGAN: Five pieces of art – Sterling Ruby’s Turbines, Berlin-based painter Wolfgang Betke, Nara Walker, LUAP and that pink bear again, David Shillinglaw’s impressive Margate wall…

ORGAN: FRIEZE WEEK Part 5 – The fair itself, why was it so damn conservative? Did Sterling Ruby and the Gagosian save it all with the help of Joyce Pensato’s giant Mickey?

ORGAN: FRIEZE WEEK Part 6 – Kembra? Marton? Sterling? William J O’Brien? The obligatory ten best things at Frieze list we all have to do once the dust has settled…