Paride Maria Calcia, Hubert Duprat, Irene Fenara

Condo

★★★★☆

On until 14 February 2026

The word ‘organic’ once encompassed forms of matter that were anything but. A decade or so ago, synthetic building materials, such as Paride Maria Calvia’s stained, greenish fibreboard, could claim this adjective on account of their propensity to decay. Today, his wall hanging would go unnoticed in a waste skip. In the gallery, an acrylic frame conceals that it was the artist who caused the deterioration.

Hubert Duprat’s insect exoskeletons of gold and precious stones turn ‘organic’ inside-out again, the artist delegating the miniature objects’ assembly to the caddisflies themselves. This process is so close to being ‘natural’ that to read nature into the trinkets it gives rise to would be reckless ostentation.

Next to these gestures, Irene Fenara’s video, taken from a public webcam feed, is outright eerie because it extends this discredited ‘organic’ to surveillance and the internet. If the rest of this modest display—modest because each work is overtly unassuming—inspires nostalgia, their assembly is outright horror.


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

Eva Kot’átková, The Czech pavilion in Venice ★★☆☆☆

Eva Kot’átková

The heart of a giraffe in captivity is twelve kilos lighter

★★☆☆☆

The giraffe’s taxidermied corpse is host to an ideological stunt.

Max Hooper Schneider, Twilight at the Earth’s Crust at Maureen Paley ★★☆☆☆

Max Hooper Schneider

Twilight at the Earth’s Crust

★★☆☆☆

Mad Max meets Waterworld in a crossover sequel conceived by a film studio’s marketing department.

Klara Lidén, Square Moon at Sadie Coles ★★☆☆☆

Klara Lidén

Square Moon

★★☆☆☆

This isn’t Times Square in a blackout.

Harmony Korine, Aggressive Dr1fter Part II at Hauser & Wirth ★★☆☆☆

Harmony Korine

Aggressive Dr1fter Part II

★★☆☆☆

The garish colours which may have carried the story in cinema here are unfitting of their new medium.

Eddie Ruscha, Seeing Frequencies at Cedric Bardawil ★☆☆☆☆

Eddie Ruscha

Seeing Frequencies

★☆☆☆☆

But either the curator or the artist should have known better.

Matthew Barney, SECONDARY at Sadie Coles HQ ★★★☆☆

Matthew Barney

SECONDARY: light lens parallax

★★★☆☆

Secondary turns the gallery into an American Football stadium. But all the seats in the house are the cheap seats and the game lacks a cheerleader.

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