The best week in a month to come to London? Absolutely the first one! If you are passionate of art willing to discover the more exiting trends and, of course, even to have fun don’t miss the First Thursday and First Friday events.

First Thursday is a monthly open day of all the galleries around East End. It’s here that you can explore some of the most unbelievable street in London, like Vyner Street. Hidden at the end of Cambridge Heath Road, near Bethnal Green Road tube station, to a superficial eye this little street could seem just a mix of old buildings and warehouses. But especially during the First Thursday, with all the galleries open until 9 pm, you could experiment the secrete surprises of the place. Don’t be shy, enter everywhere, every door hides a new stunning art space. Drink even a glass of wine looking the more experimental new artists. The most celebrate space is the Wilkinson Gallery at numbers 50- 58 of Vyner Street. The stunning, minimalist building designed by Bobby Desai, Creative Director of Clarke and opened in September 2007 , is the first purpose built gallery in the area now famous for its thriving contemporary art gallery scene.

Another interesting gallery is Nettie Horn, at number 25 b. Until 26th April it presents Please Remain Calm, a solo exhibition of new works by Kim Rugg. After the closure of a splendid exhibition of Alex Echo’ s works, this First Thursday one of the best gallery Vine Space will be probably closed but if you are in Italy you can find it at the Rome art fair from 2nd to 5th April.
For many other info check the First Thusday website
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And after Thursday, don’t miss the first Friday event at the Tate Britain. We already spoke about Late at Tate. In April Music creative Phil Legg’s label FUTUREPROOF showcase a diverse selection of UK talent. From latest signing, leftfield/down-tempo act MAVRO with tracks from the forthcoming album Worlds Apart and YIMINO’s audio visual explorations in electronica to their friends GRASSCUT, featuring award winning film/TV composer Andrew Phillips and the soothing tones of PUBLIC SYMPHONY.
Plus SHEZAD DAWOOD in the Lightbox with his last selection for Tate Britain. Plus,it is open the exhibition “Van Dick and Britain”, open until 17th May.

Hidden beside Bethnal Green road, starting from Shoreditch High Street, Redchurch Street is one of the east end street rising to a top level thanks to its very fashionable restaurants and galleries.
Few metres squares, but enough to spend here an entire day. It’s also the promise of Boundary, the new the new high label restaurants/clubs meeting meeting all your needs from breakfast to sleeping time. The entrance is at the corner with Boundary street 2-4. At the ground floor there is the Albion cafe’, where you can pick the luxurious patisserie for a good breakfast, or choose one healthy soup for lunch. Just under your feet there is the Boundary Restaurant, with classic French and British cooking.

If the weather is nice, there is also a real Babylon gardens in the hearth of Shoreditch. The rooftop is a green space designed by Nicola Lesbirel and Terence Conran including bar&grill. Boundary is also a very special hotel, with 12 rooms and 5 suites, inspired by different designers or design movements.

Ok, in just one building you have the perfect place to eat and sleep. But if you want something more Redchurch street is also a very special place for galleries and design. At numbers 64-66 Vegas Gallery is a contemporary Art Space now showing No end in sight, a touring group project, which brings together six artists from the UK and Ireland.

Museum 52 (at number 52, of course) is fast becoming another one of the most exciting young galleries in London, with an on-going, rotating project. Just around the corner of Redchurch there is the stunning space of the Tea Building hosting galleries and club. If you are looking for something very special let’s go for a coffee to Austin Gallery, at the end of Red Church, 119 a Bethnal Green Road. On the wall of this very simple cafe’ you’ll see all the best of street art and the basement hosts unconventional exhibitions. From Thursday February 5th there will be the first solo show of the London muralist Stik’s.

Redchurch street offers also some very unconventional shopping. You can start at the number 3, at Caravan a lovely store with everything from skirts, to lamps, to fake birds, in a very traditional but ironic English style.

Looking for the craziest furniture possible? You could do the same choice of Kylie Minogue and Kelly Osbourne, but also of Liberty and Selfridge, looking at the armchair designed by Jimmie Martin (number 5a). With his mix of Victorian and punk style he gained the award for best “New Designer in Practice” at the Design and Decorations Awards 2005. The shop is open only my appointment.

If you want something easier to travel with, but however eccentric, look at the Speedie’s a very vintage, retro, kitsch shop, at number 81.
To end your night with a drink at number 107 there is the The Redchurch. This luxury Victorian club is specialised in cocktails and punch with influences from all over the world, and during week end is open until 3 am.

The start is a rubber made map of Beirut showing the division of the city, it goes through a bombed Baghdad, the veiled women of Teheran. “Unveiled, New art from the Middle East” the current exhibition at Saatchi gallery is an amazing occasion to discover the stunning Middle East young artists. After the re open of the Saatchi gallery in the new Chelsea space with the exhibition “The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art”, now Charles Saatchi provides another example of his ability to shock and to find the newest and more interesting ideas on the art market. The criticize to the Iranian regime is evident in works such as the ones by Shirin Fakhim, “Teheran prostitutes”, or by Shadi Ghadirian “Like everyday series” (http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artists/shadi_ghadirian.htm?section_name=unveiled). The strength of these works is even more stunning thinking that the artists currently work and live in the Iranian capital.

Don’t miss it, free entry and open until may 9th 2009. And put on your agenda also he open date of the next exhibition “Abstract America: New Painting and Sculpture”, from 3rd june. if there is something sure in the artistic scene in London is that Saatchi is back and he will strike again.

Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York HQ building on King’s Road, Chelsea.
Tube: Sloane square.

The cultural event of the season in London speaks Italian. The exhibition Andrea Palladio: his life and legacy opened from 31 of January to 13 April at the Royal Academy of Art, celebrates the quincentenary of the birth of the “architects’ architect”.

Palladio is much loved in England.

“Probably it is because he was from Veneto, a region that shares with England a similar, in some ways protestant, work ethic . In his works you can see this seriousness, avoiding baroquesque “

says the curator Guido Beltramini, of the Centro Internazionale di Studi di Architettura Andrea Palladio, Vicenza. “All the Veneto region –Beltramini says– in the 17th e 18th century was seen as a land of freedom, for the special case of the Republic of Venice in an Europe of monarchies. This is also the reason why later Palladio’s Villa Rotonda was the model for the US president Thomas Jefferson for his project of the White House. It should be a house of free men, not monarchs”.

The architect Inigo Jones brought to England Palladio’s drawing, after a trip to Italy in 1614, making the English falling in love with his rational and innovative style. The exhibition follows Palladio’s career, from the earlier palazzi in Vicenza, with his innovative solutions for rural building to his great churches in Venice, such as the Redentore church.

There are original drawings and models of his projects, as well as his Four Books of Architecture, published in 1570 to illustrate the basic grammar and vocabulary of architecture. With five editions and translations in many languages it was a real best seller.

To have a real taste Palladio’s land, the Royal Academy offers as a related event to the exhibition “Discover Venetian cuisine with Carluccio’s Italian food specialist, Valentina Daprile”. On Friday 20 February, from 6.30 to 7.30pm you could learn more about Andrea Palladio’s much-loved Veneto region discovering (and tasting!) the origins of important Italian ingredients and Venetian dishes, at an exciting cooking demonstration.
The Admission is free but booking is required with an email.

Photo | seier

Until the 28th February 2009 Rivington Place exhibits Santu Mofokeng’s pictures. Considered one of the Africa’s most important photographers of his generation, Mofokeng investigates places of public memory and spirituality.

He travelled to British concentration camp sites in South Africa, to Namibia, to Ravensbruck, Aushwitz, Nagasaki, Hanoi, showing how the memory is or not still alive. One of the major events linked to the exhibition will be Thursday 5th February. From 5 pm Lati Ri will be serving up South African music, food and drink and at 7 pm will be screening Tsotsi, the first South African Academy Award winning film.