Another week, another Five Art Things thing, well no, there hasn’t been a cherry-picking of five for a week or two. is the London Art Scene feeling a little flat right now? Yes I know we’re in that Summer lull but that usually only applies to the bigger establishment galleries and spaces. We are are almost at the end of August now, surely it is all going to pick up a little? Can we even find five this week? Shall we go on and never mind the bliss or the selfies in front of the art or whatever we said last time. Normal service miles away from being resumed, am I falling out of love with art? 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 we should add, that entry to these recommended exhibitions and events, unless otherwise stated, is free…

1: Sho Shibuya – Falling from the Sky at Unit – 20th August until 21st September 2025 – “Since 2020, Sho Shibuya has maintained a daily painting practice that begins each morning at sunrise. Whether at home in New York or travelling abroad, the artist wakes up early to collect the day’s newspaper – often the New York Times or local equivalents – before covering its front page with a representation of the day’s weather. These paintings, created in response to the morning sky, are part of an ongoing visual diary, capturing the fleeting light and mood of each new day.

While many of the works depict glowing, expansive sunrises, Falling from the Sky turns its gaze toward a more contemplative subject: rain. For Shibuya, rainy days offer a particular kind of beauty; as raindrops roll down window panes, or are pushed along them by strong winds, they form delicate ever-changing patterns that give renewed meaning to ideas of ephemerality and idiosyncrasy. These patterns, recorded through photographs and transformed into painted compositions, are at once meditative and spontaneous.

The artist notes that rain often helps anchor our most vivid personal memories – such as the day he met his wife, both of them stepping into a Japanese restaurant during a downpour, umbrellas in hand. For him, rain slows time, invites reflection, and offers moments of intimacy with the world. These paintings aim to preserve that sensation: the shimmer of light transformed through glass and water, and the subtle chromaticism found in grey skies.

Yet beneath the serenity of these paintings lies a quiet tension. The artist notes, “In other parts of the world, the sky is not gentle. It’s not rain that falls, but bombs. The same gray clouds that comfort me here cast shadows of fear elsewhere. Where I see beauty, others see smoke. Destruction. Silence broken not by soft drops, but by blasts. That contrast stays with me. These paintings are not just invitations to pause and reflect, but reminders of what peace looks like. And how fragile it is.”

Falling from the Sky invites viewers to pause and consider what remains long after the clouds have passed”.

Unit is at 3 Hanover Square, Mayfair, London, W1S 1HD, The highly polished very glossy gallery is open Tuesday through to Saturday, 10am until 7pm (6pm on Saturdays, 5pm on Fridays)  

2: Amirhossein Bayani, The Narrative of Minorities at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery / Wandsworth – 21st August until 27th Sept 2025 – Now this look rather intriguing and Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery shows are always worth checking out “The Narrative of Minorities, Bayani’s first solo exhibition at Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, draws on his diasporic experiences, on the complex and ongoing journey to build a home. Vast mountainscapes, dense forests and winding rivers are painted onto wooden surfaces cut into uniform shapes that resemble a simple house structure, simultaneously holding and restricting the landscape. They are memories of Iranian artist Amirhossein Bayani’s homeland, psychological states, and compressed emotions”. 

Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery / Wandsworth is at 533 Old York Road, London, SW18 1TG so don’t be going to Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery’s other London space. The Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 11am until 6pm  

3: Jack Milroy – Post-Card / Post-Book at Benjamin Rhodes Arts – on now and until 3rd October 2025 – Jack Milroy’s art always looks exciting in the flesh, you never can quite get his his “profound fascination with life’s absurdities and ambiguities” from just looking at photos, Jack Milroy (b1938) and his satirical sense of pop flavoured humour is always rather enjoyable. The Benjamin Rhodes presentation of his work back in January at this year’s London Art Fair rather stood out. This show promised more of his cut-paper constructions – incorporating printed matter and mixed media, including radical new methods.

“Milroy has been primarily London-based since 1971 where his exhibitions began in 1976. Now he has relocated to England’s south coast and most of these works are from the new studio. The 2016 monograph, Cut Out, contains extensive writing and biographical information.  This first presentation of Milroy’s unique constructions here in Shoreditch includes classic examples of his plundering of our culture’s printed and ephemeral material along with hauntingly intricate and delicate evocations of beauty and fragility”. 

Benjamin Rhodes Arts is at 62 Old Nichol Street, London E2 7HP. The show is open now and runs until 3rd October 2025 with a late evening opening on 9th September, 6pm until 9pm.  The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday Midday until 6pm.

Previously on these pages

ORGAN THING: A two artist show, Luminous, two painters, two properly proper painters and the anticipation of light, colour and imagination. Richard Kenton Webb and Emrys Williams at Benjamin Rhodes Arts, East London…

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…

4: Ollie White, Something Borrowed / Grace Mattingly,  Dancers at Haricot Gallery from 5th September until the 27th September (“Please join us for a drink to celebrate the opening on Thursday the 4th September from 6-8pm, all welcome”) – I guess we are in the lull before what we hope will be at least a little bit of a storm of late Summer early Autumn art and a revived London Art Scene. Two solo shows coming up over the two floors of East London’s Haricot Gallery. Do rather like the look of those shoes…

“Ollie White sees the boxed shoes as more than just artefacts, inspiring them to explore the ways in which an object can begin to act like a body, and how the shoes can act as characters, people, or gestures in a scene. Through the portrayal of the shoes in a box, Ollie creates anthropomorphic tension, showing the box as not just a container for an inanimate object, but as a room or a frame for a living, breathing scene”.

Haricot Gallery is found at 2 Blackall Street, Shoreditch, London, EC2A 4AD. both shows run from 5th September until the 27th September with an opening on Thursday the 4th September from 6-8pm, “all welcome”.

Previously…

ORGAN THING: More Hetty Douglas paintings, this time back to East London’s Haricot Gallery, her Miracle State and…

5: We are just thirty days away from the 2025 Art Car Boot Fair now and there really is nothing funny about art or that there is only 30 days for some of us to get out acts together, we are counting down again, we are a mere two and a half dozen days away, that 30 days in new money until the 2025 edition of the Art Car Boot Fair. Once again happening at Kings Cross here in London, at Lewis Cubitt Square once more. We did bring you the artist line back at the end of June although there’s probably been an artist or two added since then. Expect Paul Sakoilsky’s Kunst the Clown, expect Mr D, expect more as a we count down…

ORGAN PREVIEW: There’s nothing funny about art and the Art Car Boot Fair is three dozen days away, here’s Kunst The Clown…

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…