Another week, another Five Art Things thing, That’s David Shrigley’s Exhibition of Old Rope at London’s Stephen Friedman Gallery up there. Is he doing anything more than just having a laugh at art’s expense? We are in the body of something of other now, well, we’re not really surely the time has come to stop asking if 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? Did I say that last time? And the time before? Are we done here?
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: Mary West, Awash at Twilight Contemporary on now and until 13th December 2025 – “Twilight Contemporary is excited to present Mary West with ‘Awash’, a solo exhibition of paintings exploring the paradoxical nature of water”.
“West’s work views water as both requisite and destabilising, as something tender and furious. You will notice as you walk through the exhibition that the paintings trace waters shifting moods and emotional registers, revealing an element that is at once cleansing and polluted, transparent and opaque. Through vivid, and very gestural abstraction, Awash becomes a space to consider both psychological and ecological conditions. There is a tangible balance between turbulence and calm, clarity and disorientation. West, drawing from memory rather than direct observation, blurs the line allowing the experience of water to emerge very personally and viscerally for each viewer. The personification of water in West’s work, not literal but deeply felt, encourages us to think of water as a sentient presence, an entity that demands even greater care, understanding, and respect. Influenced by Roni Horn’s ‘Some Thames’ and Robert Macfarlane’s reflections in ‘Is a River Alive?,’ West’s paintings situates both water, and painting itself, within an ongoing cycle of transformation and exchange.”
Twilight Contemporary is found at 378 Essex Road, London, N1 3PF. The space is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday, 11am until 11pm.
2: Andrew Lumsden, Fruit Machine – Andrew Lumsden: Art & Activism, 1972-2022 at The Gallery Cafe at St Margarets House – 18th Nov 2025 until 12th Jan 2026 – Andrew Lumsden (1941-2023) was a London-based pioneer of the Gay Liberation Front, a trailblazing openly queer journalist and a talented artist working across a variety of media. A contemporary of Derek Jarman and David Hockney, Lumsden created a steady flow of artworks over more than half a century, reflecting his life as an activist, traveller and lover. His work ranged from abstract and impressionistic works in the 1970s to highly realistic and detailed landscapes, beaches and interiors around the UK, Spain and Goa, to intimate portraits of friends and lovers.
Accompanying the exhibition is a timeline marking out key moments from British LGBTQ+ campaigns, as well as those personal to Andrew and his work. Curated by Andrew’s close friend, Dan de la Motte
The Gallery Cafe at St Margaret’s House is at 21 Old Ford Road, London, E2 9PL. There is a step-free entry to The Gallery Café at the rear, through the garden. It is accessible through the gate located two doors to the left of the café’s main entrance. The exhibition runs from Tuesday 18th November until Monday 12th January, 8:30am-5pm.
3: Howardena Pindell at White Cube Bermondsey – Just opened and on until 18th January 2026 – “American artist Howardena Pindell opens a solo exhibition of paintings, sculpture and works on paper made between the 1960s and the present day. Spanning the Bermondsey galleries, this presentation follows her inaugural show at White Cube Hong Kong in November 2024, after she joined the gallery in May 2024. Focusing on the artist’s exploration of dispelling racial and gender myths, this exhibition surveys Pindell’s disassembly of the grid as a compositional device – a recurring motif across her groundbreaking practice”.
Read lots more about the artist and the exhibition as well as see lots of installation shots here
White Cube Bermondsey is at 144 – 152 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3TQ. The great big gallery is open Tuesday to Sunday (so don’t be going there on Monday), 10am until 6pm other than Sunday when the space is open midday until 6pm.
4: Mike Meiré, I Wish You Well at Bartha Contemporary – on now and until 29th November – Showcasing new works by Mike Meiré from his ongoing ‘Eternal News Series’. In this body of work the artist transforms daily newspapers, symbols of the fleeting and disposable, into cast reliefs in bronze and nickel silver. “The fragile structures of crumpled and worn pages are fossilised into gleaming surfaces that appear at once like archaeological fragments and monumental objects. In doing so, Meiré exposes the paradox of our information culture: headlines that disappear within hours are re-encountered here as enduring artefacts”, and here we are telling you about on line…
Bartha Contemporary is at 7 Ledbury Mews North, Notting Hill, London, W11 2AF. The gallery is open Tuesday until Saturday, 11am until 6pm Midday until 4pm on Saturdays. (although we suspect you might need to make an appointment)
5: Paula Rego, Drawing from Life at Cristea Roberts Gallery – 27th November 2025 until 17th January 2026, with an opening on 26th November, 6pm until 7.30pm – “Cristea Roberts Gallery will open a major exhibition of work by Paula Rego centred around an intensely personal period that the artist spent in her studio from 2005 to 2007” and once again Paula Rego’s art really doesn’t need our support or anything else, she was and always will be a rather highly respected and widely covered artist, but then, that intensity is worth mentioning here just in case news of the show hasn’t reached you yet.
“Focusing on her drawing practice, Paula Rego explored darker and more complex themes than ever before. A major catalyst for this period was the connection she found in the work of writer and director Martin McDonagh, whose short stories Rego used as an inspiration to create a series of prints. The playwright’s stories became a channel for Rego to feed her own personal history. The dark, sometimes grotesque, violent, and often tender stories by McDonagh, alongside other tales, saw her embrace narratives that she layered with memories from her childhood in Portugal and later adult life. Over forty works, several which will be unveiled for the first time, will be exhibited alongside a recreation of Rego’s studio, showcasing the dolls, creatures and objects she made to draw from. This exhibition, a collaboration between The Estate of Paula Rego and Cristea Roberts Gallery”
Cristea Roberts Gallery is found at 43 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5JG. The gallery is open Tuesday through to Saturday, 11am until 5.30pm (11am until 2pm on Saturdays)
Previously…
THE ORGAN 