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:

William S. Burroughs at October Gallery

William S. Burroughs

★★☆☆☆

Burroughs should be sexy, right?

Nicole Eisenman, What Happened at Whitechapel Gallery ★★★☆☆

Nicole Eisenman

What Happened

★★★☆☆

There’s a Bosch hellscape dedicated to Trump and a whole “basket of deplorables” polishing their guns in a prepper cell.

The Stars Fell on Alabama at Edel Assanti ★★★☆☆

Mary L. Bennett, Richard Dial, Thornton Dial, Lonnie Holley, Ronald Lockett, Joe Minter, Mose Tolliver

The Stars Fell on Alabama: Southern Black Renaissance

★★★☆☆

The commercial imperative is understandable. The art historical intent, less clear.

Özgür Kar, Heavy Ground at Emalin ★★★☆☆

Özgür Kar

Heavy Ground

★★★☆☆

Kar’s insight a fly’s life – or, to have it his way, the whole universe – is fleeting.

Phung-Tien Pham, doesn’t work at Project Native Informant ★★☆☆☆

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doesn't work

★★☆☆☆

Fad aesthetics for fad ideas.

things fall apart; the centre cannot hold at Tabula Rasa ★★★★☆

Elli Antoniou, Ali Glover, Richard Dean Hughes

things fall apart; the centre cannot hold

★★★★☆

These works could bear witness to the birth of a star or the heat death of the universe. The curators don’t know which.

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