Another week, another Five Art Things thing, We are at the start of September now, surely it is all going to pick up a little? 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: Joe Grieve, One’s Own Mystery at LBF Contemporary – 5th September until 2nd October 2025 with an opening on Sept 4th (6pm until 8pm) – I like Joe’s paintings, I know that’s not enough, it will do for now though;
“One’s Own Mystery is a meditation on the unseen, the quiet forces that shape how we experience the world, both within and beyond perception. Created in his North West London studio, housed in the altar of a former church, this new series reimagines landscape as more than just place. The works move beyond the literal to explore a non-physical realm that lies beyond immediate perception. The paintings explore nature as a living force – something that holds us, teaches us, and reveals a wisdom beyond language or logic.
Grieve invites us to recognise the complex systems that surround and connect us, whether visible or not. He draws on both spiritual and scientific ideas – intuition and memory, electromagnetic fields, mycelial networks, and quantum particles. There is a quiet holiness in paying attention to the land and standing still long enough to notice. At its core, the exhibition celebrates mystery, inviting us to slow down, look closely, and sense the invisible threads woven in, through, and all around us. The exhibition will be accompanied by an essay by London-based academic and writer Matthew James Holman”.
LBF Contemporary is found at 13 Tottenham Mews, London W1T 4AQ. The gallery is open 11am until 6pm Tuesday to Saturday (midday until 5pm on Saturdays). The joe Grieve show runs from 5th September until 2nd October 2025 with an opening on Sept 4th (6pm until 8pm)
2: Bianca Raffaella – She Cannot Fade at Flowers, Cork Street – 5th September until 11th October – “Dear Sean, I hope that you are well. I am writing to share She Cannot Fade, a wonderful new series of self-portrait, monoprints, by the British artist and activist Bianca Raffaella. This presentation will be opening next Thursday from 6-8pm in the lower gallery at Flowers, 21 Cork Street. Following her first major solo exhibition at the gallery earlier this year, the latest presentation will see Raffaella build on the foundational themes of memory, perception, and fragility that anchor her practice. Executed in collaboration with master printmaker Richard Spare, these innovative works push the limits of traditional printmaking, using the under-explored medium of acrylic monoprinting. Working wet-on-wet with layers of acrylic and water, Raffaella paints directly onto reflective copper plates, primarily using her fingertips, before the surface dries, capturing fleeting impressions in quick, expressive gestures. This spontaneous, tactile process reflects her lived experience of visual impairment, translating uncertainty into a physical and creative act”.
We have of course covered Bianca Raffaella’s art (and indeed her thoughts) on these pages a number of times over recent years, rather looking forward to seeing what she has for us this time…
Flowers Cork Street is found at 21 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LZ. The Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am until 6pm. The Bianca Raffaella exhibition runs from 5th September until 11th October 2025
Previous Flowers Gallery coverage on these pages
3: The Artist’s Husband, Joshua Raffell and Dave Smithers, The Hypocrisy of Meritocracy at Studio 1.1 – from 4th September until 28th September 2025, with an opening on the 4th (6pm to 9pm) at the ever uncommunicative last gallery standing on Redchurch Street over in East London’s Shoreditch –
“As the BBC used to warn us, before they went in for a gloating itemisation of every single thing that could cause offense: ‘Those of a sensitive disposition may prefer to look away’. Of course if you look away in this instance, you miss the whole show. There’s no way of wondering ‘What’s this?’ because what it is, is entirely visible. Its’s bits and pieces, mostly of bodies. Some important bits clearly missing. Human life, but as we’d rather not know it. Body parts that are here are precisely the ones that used to be unmentionable. Nipples and penises, mainly. That’s to say, nipples producing penises, and far too many of them, for one… whatever. It’s a full-blown (per)version of the abject, and nothing but. Beautifully hand=made, exquisitely detailed stitchwork freaks given raucous life and a joyous freedom. A circus of the untameable damned is coming to town. The masque of Comus. As for a quick gloss on the title, we can thank an AI overview (the AI which itself threatens monstrous distortions) : ‘The myth of meritocracy can be used to justify existing inequalities by blaming individuals for their lack of success, rather than addressing the structural issues that create barriers.’ That fits. They’ve tried to make the best of themselves, with very special care in ornamenting and protecting the nipple-penises, but it’s not going to help. If anyone needed positive discrimination, take a look. They’re it. They’re never getting it. Letting rip with an imagination most of us might prefer to damp down, with a care for detail and delicacy of handwork that few of us could match if we tried, The Artist’s Husband Joshua Raffell and Dave Smithers shocks, and disgusts, and amuses. And delights. All at once. Don’t look away”.
Studio 1.1 is the last gallery standing on Redchurch Street, the full address is 57a Redchurch Street, Shoreditch, London, E2 7DJ
Previous Studio 1.1 coverage on these pages
4: Hold Still at The Approach – 6th September until 4th October 2025 (there is an opening on the 5th Sept 6pm until 8pm but openings at the space tend to be particualrly bad in terms of people jsut standing in the way of the art talking –
“The Approach is pleased to announce ‘Hold Still’, a group exhibition with Heidi Bucher, Hana Miletić and Rachel Whiteread“. I do like those slippery when wet stairs up to the gallery and the drama of it all, I like it best when no one else is there on a Friday afternoon.
“Spanning generations and diverse material approaches, the three artists are brought together through a shared sensitivity to surface, memory and the quiet residues of human presence across both public and private realms. Whether through textile, cast sculpture, or latex skin, each practice engages with acts of recording and translation—gestures that slow time and foreground the intimate traces of human activity that get left behind. Hold Still offers a sustained meditation on the architectures of care, containment and the fragile line between absence and form.
Brussels based Hana Miletić’s practice begins in observation—of everyday urban environments, unnoticed gestures and provisional repairs that form her ongoing series Materials. Translating these informal interventions into meticulously handwoven textiles, Miletić positions weaving as both a material and conceptual act of ‘care and repair’. Each work captures the friction between the personal and the infrastructural, where mending becomes an act of quiet resistance. The largest work in the exhibition from her Materialsseries is a woven composition that takes its form from a boarded up commercial unit situated on the nearby Bethnal Green Road. In the context of Hold Still, her practice draws attention to the unnoticed patterns that structure our environments, transforming them into slow, deliberate records of attention.
British artist Rachel Whiteread has built a sculptural vocabulary grounded in the act of casting absence. By taking impressions of the negative spaces of domestic objects and interiors—such as bookshelves, mattresses, notice boards, and even entire rooms—Whiteread makes voids visible. Her forms hover between the monumental and the spectral, revealing the emotional and spatial memory embedded within architecture. Often rendered in concrete, resin and rubber, her works are both solid and elusive, holding still the fleeting traces of everyday life. More recently Whiteread has begun to work with papier-mâché, as can be seen in the works in Hold Still, which have been produced from a composite of salvaged scrap paper collected from the artist’s home and studio. Turning her attention to this more delicate, ephemeral medium to echo the forms of everyday objects or architectural elements, Whiteread emphasises absence and the traces of human presence through textured, ghostly surfaces. Lingering between the preservation of form and feeling, her works exist at the edge of disappearance.
The late Swiss artist Heidi Bucher’s immersive latex casts, produced during the 1970s and 80s, are acts of reclamation and release. She referred to her process as “skinning”—peeling away walls, floors, and fixtures to create haunting, pliable membranes that retain every architectural imprint. These works serve as both documentation and exorcism, especially in relation to domestic or institutional settings marked by repression or control – proof that even the most rigid structures can be undone. Many of the fragments featured in Hold Still would have originally been part of a larger composition. Included in Hold Still are pieces originating from a wall or floor of the Herrenzimmer[gentleman’s room], Ahnenhaus[ancestral home] and from the Borg[Heidi’s studio at a former butcher shop in Zurich]. These haunting fragments, some of which have been brushed with her iconic mother of pearl pigment, preserve not only the geometric patterns of parquet or tile, but also the imprints of decades of habitation. Through her ritualistic process, Bucher transformed surfaces into vessels imbued with memory and psychic residue. Within Hold Still, her work resonates as a deeply physical response to that which remains.
Throughout Hold Still the works of Miletić, Whiteread and Bucher perform acts of translation via materially rich, often labour-intensive processes. The exhibition becomes a space where the personal and architectural intertwine, inviting the viewer to pause and encounter the forms not as static objects, but as an imprints, echoes or repairs.
The Approach is found on the first floor above the pub, 47 Approach Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9LY, Access to the gallery via The Approach Tavern pub, there’s a brown door at the end of the left side of the bar that the staff may or may not feel like pointing out to you. The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday,12–6pm or by appointment. Hold Still is on now and runs until 4th October 2025. Previous Approach coverage on these pages
5: Cedric Christie, Make Your Own Manifesto at The Grey Gallery – 6th September until 5th October 2025 (with an opening on Friday 5th Sept, 6pm until 8pm) – Cedric Christie is another artist we’ve rather thanklessly covered more than a few times over the long life of this Organ thing, a “London-based artist who originally trained as a welder. Christie uses found materials to explore the boundaries of modernism and minimalism”
here’s what The Grey Gallery have to say on the matter…
“Who is Cedric Christie then?
An artist who was born in 1963 in Harlow and has exhibited in Belgium, France, Germany, Spain, Croatia, New York and London.
An artist with a celebrity guest list whose studio is a factory in Dagenham.
An artist who uses scaffold poles, snooker balls, tapestries, lightboxes and rally cars with the wrong signage.
An artist whose work has nothing to do with diaspora, colonialism or slavery.
An artist who exhibits in galleries, museums, cemeteries, biscuit factories, garages, hairdressing salons, and curates displays of other artists in falafel shops.
An artist whose exhibition titles are statements and sentences that get the head-scratching going (see above).
An artist who has the word fuck embroidered on his bottom.
Who is this bloke? I ask you”.
The Grey Gallery on this occasion is found at 4 Helmsley Place, London, E8 3SB. The Gallery is only open on weekends, midday until 5pm Saturday and Sunday (or by appointment). The show runs until 5th October 2025
Previously…
And how many days are we from the Art Car Boot Fair now? Sixteen days so it would seem…
THE ORGAN 
One response to “ORGAN: Five Recommended Art Shows – Joe Grieve at LBF Contemporary, Bianca Raffaella at Flowers, Cork Street, The Artist’s Husband, Joshua Raffell, Dave Smithers and The Hypocrisy of Meritocracy at Studio 1.1, Hold Still at The Approach with Heidi Bucher, Hana Miletić and Rachel Whiteread, Cedric Christie at The Grey Gallery And how many days are we from the Art Car Boot Fair now?”
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