5x15 is a literary initiative. If that sounds boring, it's only due to your dear Culture Editor's pervasive inadequacy with the written word. We hope to have instilled in enough trust in you that you, once, perhaps twice, would allow us to show you something a little less than mainstream.

But you wouldn't want the kind of event that 5x15 is to become too mainstream. Instigated by Rosie Boycott, Daisy Leitch and Eleanor O'Keeffe, the night brings together five literary minds and allows them the space to speak for fifteen minutes apiece, unfettered. Its reputation is such that all manner of cultural personalities are lining up to speak. They've had so far names including Nick Broomfield, Geoff Dyer, Mike Figgis, Craig Brown, Eve Ensler, Alan De Botton and Howard Jacobson, to come you'll have Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, Simon Jenkins and William Dalrymple. Phew.

Tonight, at Gray's Inn, they have lined up Terry Waite, Crispin Blunt, Chris Moore, Nikita Lalwani and Noel 'Razor' Smith. More than one of these people has been imprisoned (it's not particularly relevant, but it's an interesting fact). Such a broad range of interest and experience, it's an event that keeps on giving.

5x15 is at Gray's Inn, tonight at 1900.

…and here, ladies and gentlemen, we have an example of The Saatchi Gallery doing what they do best: large group shows that survey a contemporary terrain in the visual arts. This time it's photography, and it's actually not bad.

There are a number of things that can go wrong with a large-scale group show, and mostly the pitfalls are around the difficulty of maintaining interest, the expected drop in quality of some works in relation to others, and the pomposity of trying to say too much about a subject. The Saatchi Gallery have been relatively consistent at this kind of work since they moved into their Kings Road digs, and of course while some shows felt better than others, this exhibition leaves a visitor with the impression that they've settled somewhat. This presentation, which will run throughout the summer, has some tough competition around town, the gallery clearly have a strategy in mind: popular medium, trendy names. It's the casual connoisseurs' summer show of choice.

Out of Focus is the show in question. It's The Saatchi Gallery's first major photography exhibition since I Am A Camera in 2001 and features the work of thirty-seven international artists. The gallery present a wide stretch of artists, from John Stezaker to the twenty-two year old Mohau Modisakeng, with both established and soon-to-be photographers in between. It's quite a list: Laurel Nakadate, Ryan McGinley, Broomberg & Chanarin, Katy Grannan, Mat Collishaw, Matthew Day Jackson…The extended list is quite an obvious choice of artists born between approximately 1965 - 1980; that's no bad thing per se, particularly when you've got Because favourites including A.L. Steiner and Michele Abeles, for example.

A polite tip of the hat to The Saatchi Gallery then for a job well done, and to consistency. Now, let's not let them sit on their laurels. You wouldn't want them to get boring, would you?

Out of Focus is at The Saatchi Gallery until 22 July.

Trading as the collaborative duo STATIC, artists Tom and Craig present their latest exhibition, Moments of Clarity, at Whisper Gallery. This young, private contemporary art gallery was opened by Jamie Wood in June last year, and is conveniently located directly opposite Because HQ. Your dear Culture Editor popped downstairs to meet the artists as they set up their new show.

The artists' backgrounds in Fine Art and Graphics are well reflected in their new body of work, on display here for the very first time. These pieces are layered mosaics, merging screen-printing, stencils and paint across glass, Perspex and aluminium. These reconstructed portraits sit at head height; mirrored on their canvas, the effect is kaleidoscopic.

Moving to London from university, Tom and Craig set up their first studio six years ago and have been working in printing, paint and design ever since. Having uploaded to Facebook pictures of their experiments into the newly conceived layer works last year, Whisper Gallery invited the artists to present a body of this work. Having worked flat out to complete a series, STATIC display over forty of these objects in the gallery; the first time that even they have seen the entire body of their work in a gallery.

Each piece takes up to two or three weeks to create, and that doesn't include cutting the stencils required for each pattern, with both Tom and Craig working on a number of works simultaneously. The stencils are all hand-cut and can take a few weeks alone, particularly for the larger pieces. Their largest work contains over two and a half thousand individual, stencil-cut stars. "Cutting it was a nightmare, spraying it was a nightmare and cutting each one down to perfect size to make it neat was a real nightmare," they say. It's a time consuming process, presumably you can only spray one colour, for example, at a time? "The designs are the main thing, that's the most important thing, bouncing the ideas off one another."

It's not just in London where STATIC's idiosyncratic approach to design and fine art are becoming noticed. They were invited last year to exhibit in Japan, where they participated in a day of live, in-gallery painting, "People could bring anything they wanted and we would paint it. There was supposed to be just one or two stencils but people just kept coming; two hours turned into five. Come midnight the place was still packed and everyone was out of it on the fumes. I don't think the gallery owner was very happy but people just kept coming." Tom and Craig will be indulging in a spot of in-gallery, live screen-printing, as part of this exhibition, on Tuesday 08 May. A friendly PR tells me that details are as yet embargoed but the enthusiasm that STATIC show for it give the impression that they'll be looking forward to it as much as any of the visitors will. It'll be a chance to get your hands on a piece of work by these emergent artists. Following this solo exhibition they're off to Milan for participation in another show, then there's Japan again, and they're finishing the year in Las Vegas. STATIC are anything but, and their works are objects of an almost tangible desirability. Hand-crafted, there's a weight to them which doubles as a signifier of value, both in a financial and cultural sense.

A video of STATIC in action can be found here.

Moments of Clarity by STATIC is at Whisper Gallery until 26 May.