Those are some Richard Amor paintings up there, more on Richard in a moment. You’re right, 2025 was way way too quiet in terms of Cultivate, long gone are the maximalist days of Vyner Street now, gone are the days when East London was alive with the possibilities offered by empty or unwanted buildings, where one stood empty shops and unwanted warehouses now stands way too many coffee shops and new buildings that offer nothing in terms of art and the staging of anything art flavoured. There are still a few spaces, there’s also a new breed of mostly middle class gate keepers, mostly far worse than the only ones. we are so so far away from that corner where Cultivate one stood now and being outspoken and telling it how it really is doesn’t go down well with those who control things now.  What art there is East London is way too polite and by the rule book now, we don’t really do rule book or indeed politeness, Cultivate was always about DIY attitude and punk rock ethic….

And so yes, 2025 was way too quiet on the Cultivate front, we’re not done with it all yet though, we’ve still got our cynical smiles, well i have, can’t speak for Emma although today she is busy making some new riot grrrl flavoured prints and cooking things up.  We will be back with new shows at the start of 2026, we’ll probably start with a catch up and a series of “Recent Work” solo show shows from some of our regulars just so we can all catch up with what they’ve all been doing.

Now this show is not a Cultivate show, this is an Underbelly thing, Underbelly is a thing run by an East London based painter called Richard Amor. I rather think it is in the spirit of Cultivate though which is why I accepted his invite…       

Now I tend to keep a low profile around Christmas in terms of art and fairs and galleries but this invite looked a little different, I do like the punk rock DIY artist-led feel of what Richard does with his Underbelly space and especially outside his Underbelly space under that railway bridge (that bridge where we did once put on a Cultivate show long before Richard starting doing things there).

This will be a three day show, opening night, Friday 12th December, 6pm until 8pm and probably later if the weather is with us although, mostly it will be inside and under that bridge. It will happen inside Underbelly, outside Underbelly, under the railway bridge outside of Underbelly. And then it will carry on during the daytime over the Saturday on Sunday of 13th/14th December.

We’ll both have recent paintings on show, we’ll probably both be painting outside under the bridge over the weekend, it will be informal, Richard said something about larking around although I never lark around…

You bring the wine and we’ll bring the weather, we might bring some wine as well, we’ll certainly bring some art and we’ll probably make some art over the weekend. If the weather is with us, we’ll painting outside over the weekend.

Underbelly is right by the canal in Hackney at 1 Corbridge Cresent, London E2 9DS, Just off Cambridge Heath Road and right over the street from the top of Vyner Street. Come join in…

Facebook event page

Here’s some Underbelly coverage from back in the Summer… ORGAN THING: Hang on, what’s that? Underbelly Exhibition? Richard Amor? Very painterly paintings, this is all rather positive, this is what we want…