Anna Glantz

Lichens

★★★☆☆

On until 16 December 2023

If there is a logic to these seven paintings, Glantz makes it hard to believe. In one, half of a bright-eyed, middle-aged woman poses with a handbag and… half of a duck. One is a landscape within a landscape, and Glantz paints in a coffee cup to remind the eye that its job is to think. Another could have been a still life with fruit, but something obscures most of the scene, suggesting a more intense affair right behind. There’s also a closer portrait of another woman, this one with no gimmick. It matches the others only in its palette of lichen greens and beiges and the sparse application of paint.

Despite the purposeful distractions, each of these images commands attention. But their assembly is unsatisfying. The clues that Glantz leaves on her surfaces are also traps. There are either too many or not quite enough to follow or fall into. 


notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:

Mohammed Z. Rahman, A Flame is a Petal at Phillida Reid ★★★☆☆

Mohammed Z. Rahman

A Flame is a Petal

★★★☆☆

Rahman’s zine hand makes this make-believe explicit but not plausible.

Joseph Awuah-Darko, How is your day going? at Ed Cross ★★☆☆☆

Joseph Awuah-Darko

How is your day going?

★★☆☆☆

This project relies on layers of gimmicks and, sadly, they show through Awuah-Darko’s thick palette knife impasto.

Justin Chance, Motherhood at Ginny on Frederick ★★☆☆☆

Justin Chance

Motherhood

★★☆☆☆

If only he stopped there.

Amanda Wall, Femcel at Almine Rech ★★★☆☆

Amanda Wall

Femcel

★★★☆☆

There’s no dignity in paint when the arc of art history tends to “show hole”.

Pope.L, Hospital at South London Gallery ★★★☆☆

Pope.L

Hospital

★★★☆☆

This project lands in the joke section of Animal Farm and not as a prophecy of the Jan 6th insurrection.

Hannah Black: HUSH MR GIANT at Arcadia Missa ★☆☆☆☆

Hannah Black

HUSH MR GIANT

★☆☆☆☆

What’s wrong with rights makes no right with painting.

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