Seeking New Landscapes at Flowers, Cork Street, London, July 2026 – Seems like an age since the last venture to London’s Cork Street and the West End in terms of the never ending search of art, in reality it is a mere couple of weeks. Cork Street has in truth been a little flat in recent months, the big empty windows of the former Stephen Friedman space really doesn’t help things, a great big now forlornly empty space that does kind of dominate one half of the street. Whatever happened in terms of the downfall of the Stephen Friedman Gallery operation and the treatment of artists, the space did feature excellent show after excellent show, exciting cutting edge shows and pretty much all of them documented on these pages. We’ve rather missed that edge and those exciting shows from artists like Alexandre Diop, Jim Hodges, Deborah Roberts, Jeffrey Gibson, Leilah Babirye and yes, as we’ve said before, you might well be right to ask us, what with all our championing of the underground, of the DIY and things artist-led, you might ask why we should be so bothered; hey, more than anything we just like going to see good challenging art and if that means Cork Street and the West End then so be it. (truth is the various artist-led DIY scenes haven’t really been delivering in recent times either, when were we last really excited by an artist-led show? There was a time when being excited was an almost weekly occurrence, things have been so conservatively predictably polite and by the art school book in the last few years, as have the new breed of self congratulating too cool for their own good curators and their unfriendly rich kid gallery spaces)
Off to Cork Street (and the surrounding area) then, off in the heat, mostly to check out the just opened group show at Flowers Gallery (do miss the big Flowers East London space as much as we miss Stephen Friedman, shame it was just allowed to fade away), off to check out the Seeking New Landscapes exhibition that opened the night before (wonder what happened to their Artist Of The Day thing? I guess that was a lot of work in the heat of the Summer, it was rather good though, rather important, maybe they’re doing it in August? No sign of it on their website) This Summer, Flowers are running a group show, a coming together of their current crop of artists I guess. I guess I should stop guessing and read the damn press release? The show features work from William Crozier, Ken Currie, David Dawson, Friedemann Hahn, David Hepher, Lucy Jones, Gerhard Neumaier, Tom Phillips, Bianca Raffaella, Gill Rocca, Tai Shan Schierenberg, Anna Maria Schönrock, several names that have enjoyed quite a bit of positive coverage on these pages (hit the links and find some of that coverage). A number of artists who landscapes we were rather curious about then, one or two artists who you maybe don’t really consider in terms of landscapes.
Advance publicity was carefully avoided, the temptation to drop into any of the numerous galleries encountered between Bond Street Station, Hanover Square and Cork Street not given in to (that happened afterwards on the way home, there might be some coverage along in a moment, who knows, wait and see). The first thing that hits you, well no, not hit you, Bianca Raffaella‘s work doesn’t really hit you as much as it quietly almost whispers an invitation to spend quality time seeing and feeling (or sensing) some of what she sees and feels. The piece in here for this show, is, in truth, typical of her work, indeed I couldn’t honestly tell you if we’ve seen this big painting of hers before although we probably have and if we have then almost certainly in this very space. it is a rather beautiful piece, as all her big (wet) paintings are, and yes, as is the case for a number of the artists in here, you probably need to know them and be familiar with their work to appreciate their contributions to this group show. Bianca’s big two metre square painting; Fleeting Visions in a Downpour (2025) is as beautiful as her work almost always is, that very wet feel she gets (from working in a very wet way, her canvas almost under water), that fleeting ephemeral vision shared in such a powerfully understated way; Bianca Raffaella, if you don’t already know, is a severely partially sighted artist, this of course throws up all kinds of intriguing questions, questions about what we are seeing, what the artist is seeing, the communication between the two parties, us and her, in terms of standing there looking at the piece, moving right into the piece. We all see things differently, those of us who’s eyes aren’t as good as most people’s eyes see things in our own ways, we’re never quite sure what others are seeing in our work, I can see so so much in Bianca Raffaella’s work, although, this piece, in isolation, is in danger of just being another piece in her now rather familiar style – it is still a beautiful thing to see and if it is the first time you encounter her work it surely will make you want to seek out more, we’re looking forward to what she might do next…
Not sure if this show really works though? Yes, there are interesting pieces and yes, as a group show, as one collective whole, yes it does work, are some of the pieces a touch throwaway though? Kind of hoped David Hepher, an artist I greatly admire, would go find some concrete in a field and is Tai Shan Schierenberg‘s Large Park Sketch from 2021 a little disappointing? His 2023 Headspace show for Flowers was rather impressive – Tai Shan Schierenberg’s Headspace at Flowers Gallery, big show, big paintings, and not just in terms of size… – I kind of almost missed Schierenberg’s landscape in this one or at least it didn’t register as his work as I looked at it, ditto David Hepher’s Fusina’s Field IV, a rather traditional landscape piece from 1998. Do check out both artists if you don’t know them, their pieces in this show won’t really tell you much. I’d argue David Hepher’s recent Flowers shows are amongst the most powerful art shows I have seen in recent years, I massively admire his concrete, I love his work, David Hepher excites me, his landscape here didn’t, I was hoping for something more in tune with his recent work.
There’s a delightful little (in terms of size, far from little in terms of anything other than size) piece by Tom Phillips, something called The Road to Alice Springs, an oil paint and collage piece on board (11x14cm) that dates from 2012 and there’s an intriguing piece behind the desk almost hidden in the corner that I can’t really see properly (and I really really want to go and see it), a piece from 1992 by German painter Friedemann Hahn.
And there’s a Ken Currie piece called Study (Still Night), from 2022, another painter from the Flowers stable who I greatly admire, and it is a nice little painting, but it won’t really tell you why I admire his work so much even if that distant red light does resinate (I grew up in a working port or a town, I spent a lot of time looking out to sea). And I do like the rawness of Lucy Jones and her way of doing what she needs to do with such a powerful economy, but it is about her portraits rather than this landscape (maybe I haven’t paid her bold landscapes enough attention?).
There’s a number of painters I admire in this show, but these pieces, on the whole, won’t tell you why I admire them so so much. I was rather excited to see the show, I did go in on the first day just to see it, I left a little disappointed though, I am imagining a group show with the very best work of each of these artists (and the others) in the show is brought together, this one feels a little throwaway, the b-sides that didn’t make the album maybe.
I do rather like David Dawson‘s June storm in Wales, 2022, that one is probably my favourite piece in here, but then, like him I did leave Wales to becoming an art student in London, and I can smell the colour of the Welsh hills in that piece, his greens and greys that are never quite just green or grey, those greens and greys are just right, I do feel like I know where he was standing (although in reality I have no clue), I can hear Peter Prendergast in that landscape of David Dawson, I can hear rather a lot in that rather fine David Dawson painting, glorious light.
And as is often the case at Flowers, when their main exhibition is in the main room, there’s a selection of other rewarding work waiting down in the basement. Always worth a quick look down those stairs. Right now there’s a delicious Renny Tait painting and a rather intriguing Stephen Chambers piece amongst a number of things worth your valuable time. There’s a Terry Frost piece I don’t think I’ve seen before, a piece that dates from 2003, the year he died. Actually, at the moment it really is worth a visit to Flowers just for the basement before you even start to think about the main event back upstairs.
this Seeking New Landscapes exhibition is well worth seeing, there’s some interesting work, there’s some very interesting artists, you’re probably not seeing the best of most of them but are probably learning something new about one or two. (sw)
Flowers Cork Street is found at 21 Cork Street, London, W1S 3LZ. The Gallery is open Monday to Saturday, 10am until 6pm. The Seeking New Landscapes exhibition runs until 8th August 2026.
Previous Flowers Gallery coverage on these pages
As always do please click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show…
Meanwhile, down in the basement…
THE ORGAN 
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