And then after the cake and the excess of that night things had to go back into some kind of personal lockdown and well we did kind of document it before the More Cake show and I have covered it on my own art website here, here and here, I won’t bore you with it all here, on with the here and now (and the floating anarachy) and while I’ve been busy with all that, Emma has been busy with her solo show, more about that later toay, it isn’t a Cultivate thing, it is actually happening at WIA, a gallery in Lewes, East Sussex, a show called I am the beast I worship, here’s the link to the Facebook event page, actually, why not tell you about it now, it does open on April 27th, this coming Saturday… here’s what WIA (Women in Art) say…

“Emma Harvey is a painter from London, currently based in Kent, who makes paintings and lino prints that explore themes of female empowerment, body image and self-identity; her work is a very personal response to gender and female sexuality and her own understanding of body, femininity, and self.

In her exhibition, ‘I am the beast I worship’ at WIA Gallery a ritualistic theme runs throughout her work as she examines and reimagines her own experiences in relation to past and present narratives about women’s sexuality.

Emma incorporates ribbons into her work to symbolise society’s attempt to tame and control women but to Emma they are a means of reclaiming the imagery of restraint as a form of emancipation”.

Opening event: Saturday 27th April, 3:00-5:00pm (FREE to attend) at WIA Gallery, 3 Fisher St, Lewes, Sussex, BN7 2DG. Exhibition dates: 27 April – 18 May 2024. Gallery opening hours: Thu/Fri/Sat 12-5pm

And while circumstance, commitment elsewhere, broken eyes, the beast and the rest of it meant yet another break from the on off business of Cultivating, and while Summer things are pushed back a little, there are physical real life shows in place, including more at Shipton Street, a Summer show back in Crystal Palace (where Bloom happened) that will open on August 9th, the Art Car Boot Fair at London’s Kings Cross and such, there are more online shows coming up. We started the online shows way before anyone had any notions of Covid and lockdowns and we’ve carried on with them since, why stop? They work both for us as Cultivate and for (most of) the artists involved. Invites to artists to come be part of Mixtape 7 are going out now, there is an open call element

By the way, we’re no longer working with Curator Space in terms of open calls and such, we really had had enough of their rudeness, the way they treat artists and more than anything their continued support for galleries and curators who charge artists just to make a submssion via e.mail, something we’ve always stood strongly against, we are not your cash cows!

More in a moment….