More in August
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First Thursdays is back! Today, we return with four exciting opening recommendations for a summer walk around the East End. The walking route will take approximately one hour and forty minutes and includes visits to three galleries.

The walking route will start from the Whitechapel Gallery and head to Four Quarters for I Am Who I Am Now. This exhibition focuses on everyday photographs taken of and by Bengali people over the past 50 years. From snapshots of family life to images documenting the power of community spaces, I Am Who I Am Now illuminates the intricate interplay between individual experiences and the broader socio-political landscape in the East End. The images are drawn from the Bengali Photo Archive, a new collection of personal and family photographs donated by local people. They are shown alongside work by photographers who have documented the working lives, activism and anti-racist struggles of the Bengali community, including Raju VaidyanathanMayar AkashAnthony LamPaul HallidaySarah AinslieDavid Hoffman and Paul Trevor.

The second stop of the walking route features Summer Readings, a group show at Benjamin Rhodes Arts. Inspired by the allure of recommended reading lists for languid, sun-drenched days and the pervasive need for readings by utility companies, medical professionals, and tech outfits, this exhibition showcases works by three UK artists: Tricia Gillman, Michael Ginsborg, and Vik Winter. The gallery will present their works, including collages, drawings, and paintings on paper and canvas, with abstract compositions experimenting with acrylic, charcoal, and pencil.

From there, the walking route will continue to Sarabande Foundation for their summer group show, A Place, which is divided into two distinct parts, highlighting the work of 20 resident artists from Sarabande’s studios in Haggerston and Tottenham. Over six weeks, the artists will present their interpretations of A Place, reflecting their time and growth at the Foundation. The first exhibition, “Can I just…”, runs from August 1st to August 16th, with a Private View on Thursday, August 1st, from 6 pm to 8 pm, featuring works by Stephen Akpo, Noah Berrie, Matija Čop, Emmely Elgersma, Dean JF Hoy, John Hui, Sophie Lloyd, Banita Mistry, Daniel The Gardener, and Lulu Wang. The second part, “…stay longer”, runs from August 21st to September 6th, with a closing event on Thursday, September 5th, from 6 pm to 8 pm, showcasing pieces by Darcey Fleming, Jo Grogan, Leyman Lahcine, Malgorzata Lisiecka, Kuniko Maeda, Koby Martin, Electric Adam, Anna Nicolò, George Richardson, and Almudena Romero.

The last stop of the evening will be at Microscope for the exhibition Muntjac, inspired by a series of personal encounters between artist Becky Lyon and the ‘invasive’ muntjac deer across the woodlands of London. The show is curated by curated by artist-architect-researcher Kirsty Badenoch. The muntjac, originating in China and released into the English wild via Bedfordshire’s Woburn Park in the early 1900s, are rare to come across. Therefore, these frequent encounters have felt like an invitation to tell stories and make-meaning. They have offered a surprising and generative vessel to think through and reckon with England’s relentless hostility towards, enclosures of, and alienation of the brown body across the UK. At the heart of the work is a series of journaled correspondences conjured from this little brown deer alongside a series of offerings which hold sacred its fleeting presence and humbling revelations. The exhibition and supporting programme of correspondences with co-conspirators contribute to ongoing discourses around who is welcome to and feel joy on this island.

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