You might have noticed, if you read Time Out, decent newspapers and find yourself on Redchurch Street of a weekend, that there’s a kid on the block. He isn’t new. In fact, he/ she/ them are 7 this year. And there’s 9 of them. And they are shining so very brightly this year.
It’s May, which means it’s Catlin Art Prize time. Time to visit, time to ponder, time to vote.

Visit and vote please
But this year, time to wonder too. Behind the simple glazed doors on the artfully graff’ed street (this ain’t Mayfair), you enter a perfectly executed labyrinth displaying the hottest new artists, selected by the ever upbeat but deadly-eyed curator Justin Hammond.
The very best of installation, sculpture, painting, performance, video (sometimes all in one artist’s oeuvre) are here as you navigate the galleries. Don’t skip past Fatma Bucak’s video work of a woman toiling over ruins in an unknown town as you enter.

Fatma Bucak
Ponder on the translucent screens that you pass through - like a traveller in airport security perhaps - in Terry Ryu Kim’s work Screening Solution I, II and III before you are hit by David Ogle’s lasers.

David Ogle
Stumble forward into the dream/ nightmare that is Nicky Deeley’s fantastical performance piece;

Nicky Deeley
Take a breather with Robert Crosse’s fascinating Folkstone Model Railway Club which looks - reverentially I felt - at communal activity;

Robert Crosse
And then emerge into gallery#3 and Bee Griffith’s arresting nudes, juxtaposed with Steve Allan’s targicomedy banana-man paintings and Conall McAteer’s contemporary pixelated version of Notre Dame cathedral’s north rose window.

Bee Griffith

Conall McAteer
And we haven’t even mentioned the media’s star of the show, Juno Calypso. Go and see what all the fuss is about yourself.
Open until 26th May at Londonewcastle Project Space. Full details here.
All images courtesy and copyright Peter Hope www.peterhope.eu