Near to the Wild Heart at The Approach, East London, June 2026 – Opening night, Friday night, hot hot hot night in the city, some rather half-hearted up front publicity that kind of has us asking if they can’t be bothered then really why should we? It really is oppressively uncomfortably hot, way too hot to be going to an openingnight of an art show. There was a need to see some art though, a need to get back in the saddle, art coverage on these pages has been a little fractured in recent times (and for more than just one reason) and shows at The Approach do tend to hit more than they miss. I needed some good art, I actually needed the sound of an opening night, I really needed to be excited by a painting or two. Six artists in this group show, something hopefully near to some kind of wild heart. I know next to nothing about the artists involved; Sam Windett has featured on these pages, we’ve seen his work on the walls of The Approach before and yes there was that rather strong Anderson Borba show at the same East London space a couple of years ago – A rather busy opening of a strong Anderson Borba show at The Approach – oh, hang on, the (ever useful) search engine on the Organ website informs us that Bill Lynch has enjoyed a bit of coverage on these pages (hey, there’s years and years of coverage of these fractured pages, we have been documenting these things since the last century, I can’t remember ever single artist covered, there must be thousands. Turns out we covered a show at The Approach that featured the work of Kentaro Okumura a couple of years back as well. Carole Vanderlinden and Hilda Kortei are new names to us. Six artists to explore then and all just a five minute walk away, of course we could be bothered (even in this heat) I love going to art shows, I need to go to art shows, everyone should go to art shows. 

The Approach then, I’ll resist the temptation to tell you what I think of the pub, let’s just say it ain’t really my kind of boozer, let’s just head up those deadly stairs to the gallery. As a place to see art the upstairs gallery and that very high ceiling is excellent, maybe not on an opening night when people like to stand in front of the art talking but on a Saturday afternoon when you get the place to yourself more often than not, when you get it to yourself then the Approach, as establishment as it can sometimes feel, is one of the best art spaces in this part of town. It always feels good to walk up those stairs for a new show even if we have walked the walk so many times now.  Near to the Wild Heart; a six artist group show that takes in the gallery’s spacious main room and the smaller far more intimate annexe space and yes, this instantly feels goodas we enter the room…

Why does this feel good? Do I need to try and work the answer to that out? Do we need answers? Do we need analysis every single time? I’m immediately enjoying this and i haven’t turned to look at the two Hilda Kortei pieces yet. We’ll get to Hilda in a moment, it is the combination of that Anderson Borba piece standing on the floor and that big Sam Windett canvas that’s taking up one of the walls that greet you as you walk in, the two pieces kind of feel like they shouldn’t get on with each other as well as they do, Borba’s now familiar drawing on what the exhibition statement describes as Afro-Brazilian spiritual traditions, another piece that feels like something that nods towards Brazilian modernism and immediately reminds us of that solo show in this space and how good it was, that sculptural reaching up that needs to be walked around, circled around and then when you’ve satisfied yourself looked beyond towards Sam Windett’s layers and surfaces, those intriguing circles. This is already a show to really like, to just really enjoy, a hang to appreciate, space for everything to breathe, a hang that allows the pieces not to impose on each other, the noise in here is good, the space between the pieces, the conversations… 

Not everything in the exhibition is to like, there is much more to like than dislike, I don’t massive dislike anything and really, I’d rather focus on the pieces that I really do like is this rather positive show and I really really like those two Hilda Kortei pieces. I really needed to see those two pieces tonight, I really need to just stand there with them, I know nothing about Hilda Kortei, right now I really don’t want to know too much about Hilda Kortei, I just want to enjoy the layers, the colour, the decisions made that make the two pieces on the wall here in the main room so enjoyably exciting. It isn’t that she’s doing something radically different, it is that she has got the balance of what she’s doing with these two pieces just right and for now that’s more than enough. The analysis and the reasoning and the deconstructing of her deconstruction and her piecing things (back) together can come along later. her use of paint here is delicious, the colour is powerful, rich, engaging, it does feel intuitive and right now I just want to enjoy her two bold pieces that are next to each other on the wall.     

“British artist Hilda Kortei approaches painting as an intuitive process of construction and revision, creating richly layered compositions in which abstraction, fragmentation and materiality converge through colour, gesture and the physical act of making. For Near to the Wild Heart, Kortei presents two paintings (both 2026) that combine hand-sewn canvas, assemblage and expressive mark-making to create compositions that are both bold and open-ended. Areas of exposed canvas and irregular edges interrupt the picture plane, lending the paintings a raw physicality and an openness that resists fixed interpretation”. 

I don’t make a habit of talking to artists at shows, I needed to this time, I needed to tell her I was enjoying her work, I kid of needed to know what she’s say, I liked her response, she asked me why. I look forward to exploring more of Hilda Kortei’s work, for now, I don’t want to think about it too much, for now I just want to enjoy it, I don’t want to consider the why too much. There won’t be a second chance to encounter her work for a first time, from this day on I shall be armed (or burdened) with prior knowledge, with background, with who she is and why she does it. Or maybe we’ll never encounter her again, there are many young artists who’ve excited us and then disappeared or never followed it up, it takes defiant commitment and a lot of sacrifice to keep going as an artist, I hope she does, I get the feeling she will, I hope there’s lots more to come from Hilda Kortei (if that doesn’t sound too patronising)             

I like this show, I like that Near to the Wild Heart is an “intergenerational group show”, I like the conversations, the connections between the work of the artists involved, I like how it flows, how it works, that the whole thing as well as the individual pieces seem to be strongly intuitive, that is all feels rather instinctive, richly so. I don’t like every single piece, I really like this show, I really needed this show. London art shows and galleries have been a little disappointing in recent times, this is a strong rewarding and rather recommended instinctive group show. (sw)     

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. Near to the Wild Heart is on now and runs until 1st August 2026.

Previous Approach coverage on these pages

As always do click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show