We did say we should do this, maybe not every single day, more often than not though, there can never be too much art on these pages, here it comes again, for a third time…
A simple thing, just an almost daily slice of the art posted (no way am I committing to doing it every day, I’m busy making art and a million other things). Some days it might be a piece of art from someone we’ve been regularly covering on these pages (and maybe working with in terms of Cultivate), other days it might be something by an (almost) household name, on other days it might be a piece of art by someone who work we hadn’t known until the day we posted it, Today we feature a couple of painting by a painter we’d never heard of until last Friday’s opening of a new group show at East London Approach gallery….
An except from the review of that group show that ran on these pages last weekend…
“…..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)
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 . The gallery is open Wednesday to Saturday,12–6pm or by appointment.
Near to the Wild Heart, including the two Hilda Kortei pieces is on now and runs until 1st August 2026 at The Approach
Previously…
ORGAN: Today’s Slice Of Art (Part 2) – Hetty Douglas is unmanageable…
ORGAN: Today’s Slice Of Art (Part 1) – Madeleine Strindberg’s Departure…
THE ORGAN 