I do sometimes say I’m a somewhat reluctant curator, the truth is I love putting shows together, I love showing the work of other exciting artists, I love running open calls and hanging shows, I love finding new artists, I love seeing artists who we gave early wall space to go off and do exciting things – true, one or two seem to so quickly forget who gave them that wall space first, I know damn well what Joshua Comptson meant when he talked about being an aircraft carrier,  but there is a pleasure in finding an exciting artist and inviting them to take part in a group show, in discussing the work to be shown.  The first Cultivate show of 2019, a show curated by myself and Emma Harvey, opens next week, we’ve both been busy pulling it together over the last month while at the same time working on new work of our own, I’m rather excited about the first show of the year…

Attract – A group show from Cultivate, 17th January 2019 at BSMT Space, Dalston, London N16

The first Cultivate show of 2019 will kick off on the 17th day of January over in Dalston, London N16. The Thursday evening sees us open a rather exciting group show in the rather impressively remodelled basement art gallery that is BSMT Space. There’s been some rather significant art shows at BSMT Space over the last couple of years, we’re rather looking forward to returning to the rather buzzing gallery once again. This will be the fourth time the now nomadic Cultivate has landed at BSMT Space, this time the show is called Attract, we’ll leave you to decide why. .

Attract will be another Cultivate group show, another contemporary art show, a hopefully healthy mix of cutting edge painters, of abstract thought, a show that will feature a touch of print, maybe some text, maybe some performance, animation, mostly the show will be about painting this time – contemporary painting, a touch of pop, a hint of the street and twenty of so artists gathered together under the Cultivate banner in one space for yet another short sharp group show. Hopefully by now you have some idea in terms of the busy cross-pollination at a Cultivate show; the maximalist attitude, the punk rock edge, the encouraging of contradiction. Cultivate is run by artists for artists. as well as for those who like to engage and explore art in a more friendly inviting way..

Attract will open on Thursday January 17th at 6pm, everyone is welcome, none of that get on a list or download an electronic ticket nonsense (although you really should get on the Cultivate mailing list and keep in touch with everything we do), we don’t do “private views”, out shows are open to everyone. Attract will kick off on Thursday January 17th at 6pm until 9pm for the Thursday evening opening and then open from 11am until 6pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday 18th, 19th and 20th January…

Attract is curated by Cultivate’s Sean Worrall and Emma Harvey the show will feature some old friends as well as some new names including the art of DAVIES MONAGHAN KLEIN, EMMA HARVEY, IAN BAILEY, JAMES BELL, JESSICA SCOTT, LENNIE LEE, MADELEINE STRINDBERG, PAUL SAKOILSKY, QUIET BRITISH ACCENT, SAL JONES, SEAN WORRALL, SOFIA MARTINS GRAY, STELLA WHALLEY, TONY BERKMAN, TWINKLE TROUGHTON, VESNA PARCHET, VINAY HATHI, YI ZHANG and YULIA ROBINSON  – you can probably expect a couple more artists to be confirmed before the show opens, if we see something from someone we need to respond to there may well be a couple of additions to the list of already confirmed artists…

new work, work in progress….