Okay, so things have been a little quiet since the adventures and the seaside treats of Folkestone, all the ponies sold straight away of course and a fine day was had by all. You can read lots more about Folkestone  via the Organ pages and the link comng up underneath the first image…

ORGAN THING: “I like to think that the Art Car Boot Fair is a very good thing, I make no secret of the fact that I love being part of it…”  – “It has become a bit of a tradition now, the Art Car Boot Fair road trip and the main event of the London Art Car Boot Fair being followed by a day out and the boot fair hitting the road. In recent years we’ve been to Liverpool, we’ve been to Hastings, to Margate, this year…” further reading

Folkestone was only two weeks ago, it already seems like a couple of lifetimes ago, we’ve stopped to take a breath or two since then, stopped to quietly contemplate Cultivate since then. During those two weeks of quiet contemplation (aided by the Sage Francis back catalogue), Cultivate’s sixth birthday came and went, six years since that first show opened 22 hours after we had signed the rental agreement, enough of that though, history.   We did have a new gallery show ready to go, the plan was to announce it straight after the Folkestone adventure, another London group show, it wasn’t quite right though, not the right space, not the right time and kind of feeling like it might be nothing more than just another Cultivate group show and we really don’t want a Cultivate show to ever feel like it might be little more than just another Cultivate show.  If it can’t be as exciting a prospect as Play or Interact were as we were pulling those shows together then we don’t want to do it, if it isn’t in a space that excites us then we don’t want to do to it, we don’t want to just repeat things again and again (and no, we don’t plan an on-line show called Something Yellow any time soon either, the black blue and red shows went well, far too easy to just do it again). To repeat what we’ve already done is to water down the shows that have already taken place and those show that have already happened really don’t deserve that..

Play, a show in a condemned East London warehouse,  June 2015

And so all current plans have been torn up and dismissed as being a little too much like things we’ve already done under the Cultivate banner already, no returns to the same basements we’ve been to already, no group shows in the obvious places or just for the sake of another group show. There will be new shows, of course there will be, there will be news shows when the time and more importantly, when the place is right, the right old shop or the right formal white cube gallery or maybe an old cement works or a railway station or a one night stand of a show somewhere other then London? Maybe? Maybe you have somewhere that would excite? A show in your  garden shed? There surely will be new shows (maybe)

Talking of Cultivate and Vyner Street as we were back there, there seems to be a hint of a little bit of life down the old street… ORGAN THING: Vyner Street’s big Wilkinson Gallery closes, Modern Art to open with a major Josh Kline show… I walk past the street most days, not had a reason to walk down there for months and months now. last time I did there were no signs of the marks made while making art or much esle besides a fancy new coffee shop and some high-price blocks of flats…

The Marks Made While Making Art, Vyner Street, 2013

The marks made while making art are always intriguing, the floors of artist’s studios, their boots or dresses or shirts, the outside walls where a canvas might have been propped against while they were painted on (I did enjoy painting on that corner outside of the gallery, the Cockney taxi drivers were such incisive critics).  All physical shows might be on hold but I do feel a new on-line show coming up, a show called The Marks Made While Making Art. Watch this space or watch the Open Call page on this website…

And while we’re here and before the real issue of paint throwing is returned to, you do know we’re regularly previewing art shows and events over on the ever busy Organ pages don’t you?  Five (or maybe six or so) shows selected every five or six days or so, today’s recommendations read something like this – ORGAN: Your five recommended art things, Aida Wilde, Bella Easton, Tal R, Mark McClure and Cosey Fanni Tutti… – Another five art things, news of another five shows and openings, news that has passed this way in recent days, another five things we think are worth sharing on these pages.  No messing about this time around, no time for a big editorial today, no time for a small one either, five London art show. The previous selections came with a great big editorial, so many things to say, so little time to say them…

Have you seen that Norman Ackroyd show at Eames yet? You really must see it (and you really must go see Dream Nails as well) . No, we can’t put on something that’s just another group show, we can’t just repeat things, we can’t do the things we’ve already done all over again. Watch this space, I’ll be back in five minutes….  (sw)