We don’t need an editorial here do we? Another week, another Five Art Things thing and on with all this endless art coverage? Years of it. 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 art coverage and all this clapping with one hand? Answers on a postcard to somewhere ot other….
Actually this week we probably do need an editorial, the art coverage on these pages really has fallen of a cliff in recent times, we have been saying for weeks that we’re just not feeling that excited by the various branches of the London art scene right now. We’re looking at listings and gallery mailouts, at press releases and the annoyance of artists who clearly think it all starts and finishes with a bloody Instagram story, that and just showing their art to each other and really not wanting to engage with anyone outside of their immediate peer group. I really am wondering if I’m that bothered about any of it right now? It isn’t that we haven’t been going to shows, checking out shows, searching for shows, far from it. The London Art Scene really isn’t inspiring anything much right now and…
Enough of this, shut up, get one with it. Five art things then, 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: Richard Kenton Webb, Passion drawings and English Iconoclasm paintings at Benjamin Rhodes Arts – 30th April until 27th June 2026 with an opening on Thursday 30th April. Passion is a set of 24 drawings about love to be shown alongside new paintings on English Iconoclasm and accompanied by a publication with writings by Dr R. Davey and Prof H. Adlington. Richard Kenton Webb’s drawings and paintings are always worth exploring, as is what he has to say about them as well as art in general.
“Passion is a book/exhibition of 24 drawings about love by artist Richard Kenton Webb. In 2021, Webb found himself at a low point, living alone in a hut by the sea in Devon. He started to reflect, and then the second lockdown hit. This is the result: an intensely sensitive suite of drawings inspired by the Passion of Christ and dedicated to all outsiders. Originally never intended for public view, Webb showed them to Benjamin Rhodes who was profoundly moved and determined to share them as a publication and exhibition.
And of English Iconoclasm Richard Kenton Webb writes; “…Last year, I started to explore the pockets of academic disdain for painting. Since the 1990s, we have seen a shift towards concept-driven, word-based fine art study and research rather than practice-based learning with paintings, drawings and prints as the primary outcomes. For five years, I had the joy of teaching the practice of colour in world class studios at Arts University Plymouth. I see now that this is a rare and precious jewel within academia. I’m honoured to remain at the university as Visiting Professor. My new work is a response to the northern European history of destroying the embodied arts, including painting, whilst promoting a word-based culture. With the rise of AI, we need to fight hard for the survival of all embodied arts….”
Benjamin Rhodes Arts is at 62 Old Nichol Street, London E2 7HP. The show Tricia Gillmam rchbition had now ended. The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday Midday until 6pm. Richard Kenton Webb’s exhbition runs from 30th April until 27th June 2026 with an opening on Thursday 30th April (6pm until 8.30pm)
Previously –
2: Skate 50 at Southbank Centre – 30th April until 21st June 2026 – “See an exhibition telling the story of London’s original skate space over the past half century, through photography, audio and video” so says the invite; “As well as being the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary, 2026 marks around 50 years since London skateboarders first adopted the concrete space under the Queen Elizabeth Hall as their own. Since then, what is now known as the Undercroft Skate Space has become a cornerstone of UK skate culture – and a living, breathing monument to the creativity and DIY-spirit of skateboarders from all over the world. To tell its story, we’ve worked with active members of the Southbank skate community to identify key events, figures and moments that have shaped this iconic space. Skate 50 features contributions from film-makers Winstan Whitter, Dan Magee, Lev Tanju, Jack Brooks and the Keep Rolling Project, as well as sound artist Beatrice Dillon and animator Sofia Negri”.
No mention of the massive fight to save the space and the very negative spin of then Southbank Director Jude Kelly and those in charge of the Southbank put on the space, the skate culture and the street art that was and still is as important as the skateboards back there something like a dozen years ago when we all had to fight them to save it (our own We Are All Skateboarders show at Cultivate back in the Vyner Street days did not go down well with the Southbank), it will be interesting to see if the sometimes rather bitter Save The Undercroft fight is mentioned in the actual exhibition.
The Southbank Centre address is Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX (surely everyone knows where the Southbank Centre is?) The exhibition is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am until 6pm, it runs from 30th April until 21st June 2026
3: Radical Happiness at Union Gallery – 2nd May until 30th May, 2026 – An exhibition featuring three artists; Billy Crosby, Bunny Hennesey and Isaac Andrews, a show curated by Shane Bradford. “Radical Happiness speculates on how four exemplary artists enact resistance within the framework of painting, harnessing joy as opposition, and conjuring battlements of radical happiness” Four artists? Who’s the forth? There’s a so called “private view” on Saturday 2nd May 2026, 5–8pm although these things are hardly ever private and no one has ever stopped us from walking into a private view at Union.
Union Gallery is found at 94 Teesdale Street, Bethnal Green, London, E2 6PU. The gallery is open midday until 6pm, Thursday to Saturday. The show runs from 2nd May until 30th May 2026
Previously at Union
4: Zoe Benbow, Forest Path at Felstead Art – The show is on now and runs until 26th June. An exhibition that “brings together a body of work that invite a more reflective view into the wilderness. Zoe Benbow’s landscapes encourage us to explore our own countryside through interpretation and memory”.
We haven’t encountered Zoe Benbow’s paintings since an open studio event at East London’s Martello House back in 2017, her paintings do stick in your mind though – “The exhibition showcases works that are rooted in direct observation of the British landscape, including Grasmere, Lake District and forests in Warwickshire. Locations are not realised literally, but reworked over extended periods of time in Benbow’s studio through referencing photographs and drawings made in situ. Each painting moves away from realism and towards more reflective interpretations.”
Felstead Art in terms of this show is found at 60 Threadneedle Street, London, EC2R 8HP (Nearest station: Bank) The show is on now and runs until 26th June. The website is rather vague when it comes to opening times. Maybe the Felstead Instagram feed will tell you more?
5: Olivia Guillot: in between blinks at Glasshouse Projects – 29th April until 13th June 2026 – Glasshouse tell us that “the show debuts a series of oil paintings created during the artist’s time at the Tracey Emin Artist Residency in Margate. Guillot’s work does not seek to resolve what is seen, but to hold it in suspension. Her paintings examine perception as a shifting, unstable experience, grounded in the sensory relationship between body and environment. What we encounter is not fixed or fully knowable; instead, it is something that forms and dissolves through attention, sensation and memory. As a result, Guillot’s paintings exist in a state of continual becoming. Painting becomes a way of mirroring perception itself – layered, unstable and constantly shifting. in between blinks becomes both a title and a condition: a fleeting moment where perception falters, and the act of seeing opens into something unstable and speculative. Ultimately, Guillot’s work does not depict the world, but recreates the experience of encountering it – sensory, immersive and perpetually in motion.
Glasshouse Projects is found at 5 Warwick Street, London, W1B 5LU. The space is open Wednesday through to Saturday, Midday until 6pm.
And you can still checkout Mixtape No.10 or indeed enjoy it all again if you already have checked our most recent online group show out…
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