THE FRUIT SHOP is a SEAN WORRALL solo show, opens on the evening of Thursday April 4th (6pm until 9pm), everyone is welcome. The gallery will then be open over two weekends, two Saturdays and Sundays, 11am until 5pm on April 6th/7th and April 13th/14th (the gallery is also someone’s home, he normally only opens it on Sundays), You find the gallery on Shipton Street, at the top end of Columbia Road, you’ll find us sitting outside if the sun is out, you’ll find the door open and everyone welcome whatever the weather

A solo show and busy walls packed with fruit and more, a solo show but a show also featuring guest artists CHARLIE McFARLEY, SOFIA MARTINS-GRAY, SUZIE PINDAR (The Naked Artist), YULIA ROBINSON and CHRIS DEWIRE

A Fruit Shop? It works like this, I love small shops, I grew up in shops, I love market stalls, recently I was reminded how much I love just painting fruit. I was walking through Ridley Road Market over in Dalston, I love walking through the reality of Ridley Road Market, I was buying a big bag or oranges, you get great deals over there at Ridley Road, go support the local market traders rather than the corporation multi national supermarket with all the packaging that isn’t needed. The man doing the selling of the oranges said “here painter man, have a lemon to paint”, that was back in January, I’ve been rediscovering my love of still life and painting fruit ever since, I’ve had Peter Prendergast shouting in my ear about looking at it properly, I’ve been painting new layers of fruit over old things, on found bits of wood, cardboard from the street (by the way do look up Peter Prendergast if you don’t know of him). Il;ve been painting oranges from Hackney,, juicy looking pomegranates, grapefruit from Well Street, Lemons from London bridge (okay, I admit I did get that one from a supermarket, it was late, I was walking home from the White Cube and Tracey Emin’s show). I hadn’t planed to show the paintings, I was just enjoying doing the painting, there was no great plan, but then then Pete from the gallery over by Ridley Road said you need an old shop to show that fruit in and yes, of course I did…A solo show, busy walls packed with paintings of fruit and more..

WHY GUEST ARTISTS? And so The Fruit Shop will be a solo show and return to the gallery that was once a much loved local greengrocer’s shop, I love that the old till and some of the shop fittings are still there, I love that the older locals come in and tell us about it, that was one of the best things about last year’s six week residency at Shipton Street Gallery, the engagement with the people from the local estate, the tales of the locals who took the time to come in, the conversations, that’s the reason for going back rather than just the colour of the Sunday flower Market. A two week solo show but there will be a couple of guest artists on the walls or plinths, I’ve included guest artists at all of my solo shows over the last ten years, small areas of a solo show to expose the work of other artists that were exciting me at the time, I don’t see why all artists don’t do it? Bands do it all the time, special guests, toy feel cheated when there’s no opening band, I’ve discovered some of my favourite bands by just getting there early to see who the special guest is, why don’t artists do it? Special guests at previous solo shows have included, Maria Slovakova, Carne Griffiths, Twinklle Troughton, Skeleton Cardboard, Quiet British Accent, Chantal Powell, Rosso, This One, Elisabeth Osbourne and quite a few more (what ever happened to Elisabeth? she was, and hopefully still is, an excellent painter, I send her a text or an e.mail every few months, no reply and I never see her taking part in other shows, I hope she’s still out there, I hope she’s still painting). I’ve always thought artists should have “special guests” or “support bands” at their solo shows. imagine if it was a regular thing, something all artists did, what if say Tracey Emin had three pieces of art from three guest artists that most people had never heard of hanging on that empty wall down by the toilets in the White Cube? Or what if so and so did it, or thingy? What if some of the artists I’ve invited to do it did it as well? Artists on the whole are not good at supporting each other (besides turning up at opening nights to drink all the free wine that is) , it is something I will always try do, well no, not try, it is something I will always do. Just a small area of a gallery, and it will have to be a small area this time, Shipton Street Gallery is a beautiful little space, it will be an intimate show.

This time I shall be giving a little wall space to a born and bread Hackney-based street artist called Charlie McFarley (although I do believe he’s been gentrified out of East London now) a photographer called Sofia Martins-Gray who really does paint so beautifully with her Polaroid camera and as I won’t be using (all) the gallery plinths I shall be be handing a couple of them over to an artist called Yulia Robinson and her Pomegranate sculptures (she is mostly a painter, not always though,.Suzie Pinder (aka the Naked Artist) will have a couple of things on the wall and I’ve also invited a wonderful painter from York called Chris Dewire who I only discovered last week, saw one of his paintings for sale on an on-line auction site, had to bid on it, I won it, it looks even better in the flesh so I invited him to join us with a small painting or two.