‘Despite’ at Richmix, Bethnal Green

Merry Christmas, one and all. For anyone who, like me, is stuck in London over the festive period (and the weather outside is about the least festive thing I’ve ever seen), respite from all things grey and dreich is to be found – but only until the 28th – at Richmix in Bethnal Green. The idea of an exhibition of Palestinian art might evoke weightily political concerns. But according to co-curator Aser El Saqqa of Arts Canteen (with whom I found myself having an impromptu plastic cup of red wine yesterday, when I went to review the show for Electronic Intifada), one of the aims of Despite is to show that whatever – ‘despite’ – the environments of occupation and/or dispossession  they work in, Palestinian artists can rival those of anywhere else in terms of beauty and artistic quality. Artists from Gaza, the West Bank and the diaspora, El Saqqa insists, deserve to be shown for their aesthetic, not their political, pedigrees. ‘Despite’ backs up that insistence 100%, with a wide range of beautiful, creative, vibrant work. My EI review won’t be up for a few days, at least, but here are plenty of other people to tell you why you should visit the show before it closes:
Al Arte
Middle East Monitor
Claygun
Oasis
Nature Strikes Back