Another week, another Five Art Things thing, That’s a Julia Maddison piece hanging in the window of a Cultivate show up there, that was the year before last though and as we take our first steps on a new year in terms of art and our coverage of art we are wonder if we should carry on with all this this year? All this endless (thankless, or at best all this taken for granted) art coverage? Should it all just knocked on the head, just get back to the dog eat dog world of being an artist? Is there really much point in all this?
Or shall we just get on with it and never mind the bliss or the selfies in front of the art or whatever we said last time? We don’t need an editorial here do we? Normal service is miles away from being resumed, am I still 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: Condo London 2026 – We are on the edge of another London leg of Condo, it happens in 23 London galleries and starts this weekend, we did preview it all already, the details are here: Condo time is here again, Condo 2026 kicks off in London next weekend; a collaborative exhibition by 50 galleries across 23 London spaces, will it be any good this year? On with our cynical smile t-shirts once more….
Condo is really, alongside the now traditional kick off that big cattle market that is the London Art Fair (the fair is worth going to if you can afford the ticket price, in amongst it all there is good art to be found – Cherry picking at the 2025 London Art Fair, the highlights – Antonio Sergio Moreira, that Annka Kultys installation, Abigail Norris, Myles Richmond, John Virtue, a Marton Nemes piece, John R. Grabach, Perdita Sinclair, Nancy Delouis and more…), the first serious action in terms of the London art year and yes, I will put on my cynical smile t-shirt and go hope for one or two good things on the opening weekend of Condo. Actually the official website looks a little less annoying this year, the one from a couple of years ago was just unusable!
There were good things last year, walking arouns it or at least part of it is worth while, it can be a touch hit’n miss, but there is usually something and well, I’m rather looking forward to it again this year.
Condo is a “collaborative exhibition by 50 galleries across 23 London spaces”, it runs from 17th January until 14th February 2026 across London, Preview weekend is Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th January, 12–6pm both days.
Previous Organ coverage…
2: Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri, The Second Skin at Bluerider Art – The Taipei City gallery that now has a base in London (as well as bases in Shanghai and Las Angeles) say they are delighted to announce the UK debut of textile artist Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri with her solo exhibition.
“Kari Anne Helleberg Bahri (Norway, b. 1975) graduated in Fashion Design from the National Academy of the Arts, Oslo. Moving beyond the stereotype of Norwegian minimalism, she channels a distinctly Nordic temperament – melancholic, cool, and incisive – transforming garment-making into a profound artistic language. Working with discarded clothing, fabric scraps, and textile remnants, Bahri dismantles, stitches, and reconstructs fragments from chaos, granting them renewed imagery and meaning. Through her signature use of neutral-toned textile art, she probes the collective conditions of contemporary society – restriction, expectation, order, and isolation – shaping a practice that is immediately recognisable. Her works have been exhibited at Kunstmuseet NordTrøndelag (Norway) and Danubiana Meulensteen Art Museum, the Socle du Monde Biennale (Denmark), and are in the permanent collections of Kongsberg Municipality and Den Norske Husflidforening.
The exhibition title The Second Skin, precisely articulates the core of Bahri’s practice. In sociological terms, clothing is the ‘second skin’ of humanity. It does not merely cover the body; it becomes the first calling card through which an individual enters the social system, carrying expectations and restrictions imposed from the outside. Yet this second skin is often also the very source of limitation and isolation. Bahri’s artistic method is a sustained deconstruction of this second skin. She tears open the polished surface of social disguise, using the chaos of found materials – the discarded, the flawed, the decaying – to expose the truthful interior states beneath. With thread as her drawing instrument, she offers viewers a vantage point beyond the loops of the self, igniting an inner dialogue: Who was I? Who will I become? Who could I be? What unfolds is a process of reflection, recognition, and negotiation – an attempt to craft singular life narratives in the tension between a body that feels confined and the norms that shape society.
Highlights of The Second Skin; made from a judo suit stuffed with a pillow, the work ‘Punching Bag’ challenges the physical associations of a martial arts outfit by showing the arms of the suit interlocked as if a straightjacket, powerless to attack, becoming a punching bag. The work ‘Until Today’ features a stuffed striped shirt affixed to metal springs, placed on a metal frame to represent a bed. With its sleeves sewn to its ‘body’, the symbolised figure is tensed and unable to rest. The work ‘For Any Occasion’ utilises sackclothes with a shirt and tie to communicate themes of safety and belonging. Using textiles as a narrative medium, Bahri appears to work with the disorder of rags and fragments; yet beneath this surface lies a meticulous dissection of the warmth of clothing’s memory and the psychological states it quietly contains. Through making, she presents a miniature model of the full range of human emotion – joy, anger, sorrow, and delight. Her art is a critical reconciliation, and, at its deepest level, a tender form of care for what resides within the soul”.
Bluerider Art is found 47 Albemarle Street, London, W1S 4JW. The gallery is open daily, 10am until 6pm. The Exhibition runs from January 15th until March 15th, 2026. There is an opening on Thursday, January 15th, 6pm until 8pm (the gallery tells us the artist will be present and tat the opening is open to the public which is generally the case)
3: George Blacklock, Alchemy at Flowers, Cork Street – 16th January to 7th February 2026, with an opening Thursday 15th January from 6 to 8pm – In Alchemy, London-based Blacklock presents a series of works that emerge from what he calls the “studio narrative” – a process that moves between discipline and improvisation, instinct and constant vigilance. For Blacklock, painting is not a means of illustrating pre-formed statements; instead, as the artist reflects, “I believe that my paintings do not depict or represent ideas, they are the ideas.”
Flowers Cork Street is found at 21 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LZ. The Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am until 6pm. The George Blacklock exhibition tuns from 16th January to 7th February 2026, with an opening Thursday 15th January from 6 to 8pm
Precious Flowers Gallery coverage
Once again Flowers figured in our end of year round up, it wasn’t the first time – ORGAN: Our best art shows of 2025, who excited? Ron Athey and Hermes Pittakos, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, David Hepher, Hetty Douglas, Geneva Jacuzzi, Lauren Halsey, A Gesture, An Action, Alexandre Diop, Brandon Ndife, Jennifer Binnie and…
4: Plastic Crimewave, A Mind Blown Is A Mind Shown at ROVR SOHO – Opening Saturday 17th Jan 2026, 6pm until 11pm – An “exhibition and masterclass talk with Steven Krakow (aka Plastic Crimewave), with special guests Bobbie Watson and Jon Seagroatt of Comus and live cosmic sounds and DJ sets from Plastic Crime Wave, Spiral Galaxy, Cherry Stones, and special guest Gary The Tall”
“Plastic Crimewave, also known as Steve Krakow (born 1973), is a Chicago-based illustrator, writer, avant-garde musician, and music historian. He is the editor of the Drag City published magazine Galactic Zoo Dossier, a hand-drawn compendium of psychedelia that has featured interviews with artists such as Vashti Bunyan, Sixto Rodriguez, Judy Dyble of Fairport Convention, and Michael Rother of Neu!, among many other generation defining musicians. He is the eponymous frontman of Plastic Crimewave Syndicate and the founder of the Million Tongues Festival and Vision Celestial Guitarkestra. He writes and illustrates the Secret History of Chicago Music comic for the Chicago Reader and co-hosts WGN-AM’s Secret History of Chicago Music series. He also runs the Drag City imprint label Galactic Zoo Disk.
At 6:00 pm, we will host a masterclass talk with Steve Krakow in our gallery space, alongside special guests Bobbie Watson and Jon Seagroatt of Comus. From 7:00–10:00 pm, there will be DJ sets and live cosmic sounds from Spiral Galaxy with Cherrystones and special guests downstairs in our record store.
ROVR SOHO, a “music discovery platform, a record shop, coffee shop and Gallery” so they say, is found at 14 Richmond Buildings, London W1D 3HQ. Entry is free, you do need to RSVP or alternatively explore their Instagram. There is no indication if the exhibition goes on beyond the one night.
5: Attack Decay Sustain Release; Experiments in Sound with Sophie Huckfield, Nnena Kalu and Rebecca Kressley, Abbas Zahedi and more at Stanley Picker Gallery – 20th January until 28th March 2026 – “Attack Decay Sustain Release presents a series of experimental artist residencies that explore the ways that sound can play distinct roles within artistic production. The phrase Attack Decay Sustain Release (ADSR) is used in sound production to denote the four phases of a sound envelope, in terms of its volume and strength over time. Over the course of this ten week residency programme, Sophie Huckfield, Nnena Kalu & Rebecca Kressley (Super Trouper), and Abbas Zahedi, will each occupy the Stanley Picker Gallery’s various spaces, to explore how sound is employed within, and influences upon, their individual artistic practices; whether as a primary medium in itself, as a by-product of creative production, or as a soundtrack to the act of making.
Super Trouper is an evolving project organised by curator-researcher and Kingston School of Art PhD candidate Lisa Slominski, and is supported by ActionSpace. Audiences are invited to visit during the listed residency days, when the artists are working on site, and visit on the days between to hear, see and experience the works in their various stages of development. The artists’ works will accumulate in the spaces, both physically and sonically, layered over their alternate weeks in residence, culminating in a combined finale to conclude the programme. Throughout the programme the gallery will invite research staff and students from across Kingston School of Art, to present their own ideas and experiments in sound in response to the themes of ADSR. More information and residency schedule available soon….”
Stanley Picker Gallery is found at Kingston University, Knights Park, Kingston Upon Thames, KT1 2QJ. The space is open Tuesday to Saturday, 11am until 5pm
THE ORGAN 