In between the rushing around town as Frieze week starts to, well is it actually kicking in? The East London day seemed a little underwhelming in terms of actual people. the galleries I got to seemed a little quiet, dare I say a little underwhelming? Did you read Part One, Two and Three before hand, we are on a run here even though it was still only the Sunday before hand and doesn’t the week start on Monday? That’s a painting by an artist known as E.C up there, soemthing currently on show at North East London’s Terrace Gallery.
Sunday did mostly involve taking a look at what of some of East London’s Galleries were doing including another walk on that hell carpet and to see if there was anything more that smoke and mirrors at Rose Easton’s place – Hell is a carpet, Happiness is a Butterfly, Lumps and Bumps, a Full Metal Bunny and two shows at Rose Easton Gallery, Parker Ito on one side, a group show on the other… and another look at those delicious Phillip Allen paintings at The Approach – Phillip Allen’s Farm, Olivia Jia’s Faun, both at The Approach, East London, two rather intriguing exhibitions although the felt tip drawings still aren’t really connecting. And no I’m not going to run through it all like some tick box train spotting London art round up exercise, truth is I didn’t see much that excited or indeed engaged or challenged on Frieze’s East London Day and really I see no point in cluttering up these pages with any of it if there’s not much of a positive nature to say about any of it, although what the hell was going on at No Parking? Was it No Parking or Soft Opening? I always get the two places mixed up. Soft Opening, such a beautiful space to view art, there waiting just off Hackney Road, normally I leave Soft Opening feeling an indifference and well nothing much more than that really, normally I don’t feel the need to write anything much about the shows I see in the space, there was something intertesting during Condo at the start of the year, that Sam Lipp exhibition – Exploring East London’s part in Condo, that and Sam Lipp at Soft Opening, Hana Miletić at The Approach alongside New York’s Margot Samel Gallery presenting the work of Leroy Johnson and Olivia Jia… and there was the duo know as Woman’s History Month at the same time – Condo 2026 Pt.2 – More exploring East London’s part in Condo, that and Woman’s History Month at Soft Opening with Company Gallery, Matt Bollinger at Mother’s Tankstation, Lloyd Corporation at Carlos/Ishikawa, James Iveson and LA’s Castle Gallery and… Since then very little to write home about at Soft Opening. This time though, this time I did feel a little pissed off about the twenty or so minutes of my life wasted at the space. What is the emperor is wearing behind those unfriendly black doors this time? Nothing much, mostly bare walls.
I’ve probably got some wordy gallery statement about the current show at Soft Opening around here somewhere, something to do with gaps rather than voids as we crouch down and then wonder why we did. Maren Karlson is the artist, something to do with Meinhof reading Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Grammer while the crows be picking at your flesh and no one having any control over the situation, or was that Ted Nugent? Such as shame about Ted’s politics and him being such an utter Trump-loving a-hole, he did make some dame fine art back there and no, these things can’t be divorced. That show at Soft Opening did leave me thinking right, that’s enough of Frieze East London day and no earthquakes here and perhaps these images were never meant for the human eye and no, I admit I never did walk all the way to Carlos Ishikawa Gallery and the Maxwell Alexandre show, that one does look like it is going to be rewarding or at least challenging, but hey, we have been running around galleries all afternoon, a day that started with a jumping on a train over to Peckham in the hope of catching the closing day of Contact Points over at Peckham Oasis Gallery (it was caught, more on that in a bit) as well as a quick walk to the Safehouses on the off chance there was something happening, well you know, in the area and there usually is something artist-led at one or the other of the Safehouses and artists are almost never on the case when it comes to listings and telling people and yes there was something artist-led and rather good going on (more on that in a moment as well, this is a non-stop operation, there were Frieze week related openings on Friday we haven’t caught up with yet). So no, Soft Opening killed the day and the long walk to that hidden back yard behind the Oriental supermarket where Carlos Ishikawa Gallery are too cool to tell you is where they are and well, memories of walking there for last year’s Frieze East London day and them not bothering to open for it when we were told they were and well nah, not going to bother doing that again, I’ll get along later and well, we shall see….
Anyway, the point of this particular page. Well in between the rushing from Hackney to Peckham via Haggerston station and an overseas trip (see, we’re as international as the Frieze circus that’s just hitting town; overseas trips on a Sunday just to see art and then the rushing back for more East London things back on this side of the water).
There was time to drop by Terrace Gallery, the space that hides in an alley almost underneath the aforementioned railway station on the Haggerston side of Hackney. Now yer man behind the Terrace space isn’t a big organ fan either, but hey, it is good to see the space born again and collectively being so pro-active, there’s been some rather good group shows in the modest gallery in recent times. A space with a focus on guest curators, mostly artist-led shows, (artist-led shows do have a habit of being a little more rewarding) and a more than welcome focus on painting, true the last one we went to suffered from that QR code blight and the lack of information but hey, raging against the machine and those damn electric looms and all that…
Plumbline of a Dancer is on at Terrace Gallery at the moment, a group show excellently curated by painter Johanna Melvin. The norm with artist-led group shows is you go hoping to cherry pick the highlights and leave needing to know more about an artist or two you didn’t really know much about before hand, mow I do know work of most of the artists in this show, so I;m not really discovering someone new to me, however I think I can say I like every single piece in this show of seventeen artists. The show itself is united, imaginatively hung, exciting. Kind of surprised to see it mostly focused on one of the two main walls with the other left blank, it really works, the close knit group of abstract pieces for a more than positively rewarding collective whole. Okay, so we’re not talking ground breaking or anything that challenges out collective notions of what art is and where it might be going, just a collection of really strong rewarding pieces, some strong paintings from some strong painters who have come together under Johnna Melvin’s curation in the East London space. Just a really good, really refreshing show and in this on all weeks, something that’s more than welcome. Now I’m not going to cherry pick here, although there probably will be soem cherry picking over the next few days in terms of Today’s Slice Of Art Feature…
“The exhibition title Plumbline of a Dancer was inspired by abstract painter Joan Mitchell, who famously described her approach to painting as having a “plumbline” like that of a dancer. In her early years Mitchell had been an athlete and competitive figure skater, and the ‘plumb line’ analogy is an imaginary line from the top of the head to the floor, used with great reliance by dancers to maintain a vital sense of balance and stability. This sense of equilibrium and structure was instilled in Mitchell and is paradoxically evident within her often frenetic, and freely improvisational paintings. The works in this exhibition were selected in response to this sensibility; either for their gestural and painterly qualities, sometimes pitched against – control, depth, weight, a sense of ratio, the vertical and horizontal, or for a pared back geometric quality that delineates an intrinsic sense of gravity, structure and balance….”
Plumbline of a Dancer is on at Terrace Gallery, the gallery is open on Saturdays and Sundays, 12-6pm, the show closes on Sunday 18th Oct at 6 pm.Terrace Gallery is hidden down the alley beneath the train line by the railway bridge at 4 Frederick Terrace, Haggerston, Hackney, London E8 4EW. Find it just a short walk from Haggerston Overground station.
Soft Opening is found at 6 Minerva Street, London E2 9EH. The gallery is open Wednesday through to Saturday, midday until 6pm. What there is of the Maren Karlson exhibition is on until 17th October 2026.
previously
As always do please click on an image to see the whole thing or to run the slide show…
And that exhibition at Soft Opening…
