Cullinan Richards

Retrospective

★★★★☆

On until 2 November 2024

It takes some courage to name things. Turning “retrospective” into a proper noun, Cullinan and Richards open this fragmentary account to a third-party translator. A singular narrative doesn’t emerge lightly, however. Lights, mirrors, and cryptic geometries are part of the vocabulary. The works’ elaborate titles imply that they once made up a complex grammar. Sixteen-year-old text paintings hang close to current witchy triangular abstractions. Traces of the artists’ day jobs prop up archival productions. Material arrangements break formal conventions, then break other artists’ even earlier breaches.

Read in one way, this show is the kompromat in an art generation’s archive. With less context, it takes an irreverent gallop through the establishment’s self-regarding fringes. For that reason, this review is partial. The oeuvre’s charming humour, however, is incontestable.


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

Oh, the Storm at Rodeo ★☆☆☆☆

Oh, the Storm

★☆☆☆☆

This exhibitions is trying to explain the concept of ‘crazy paving’ to a blind man. It’s impossible to tell where a work ends and the wall begins.

A light here required a shadow at Maximillian William ★★★☆☆

Grant Falardeau, Rimantė Mikulovičiūtė, Benjamin Sasserson, Bu Shi, Dylan Williams

A light here required a shadow

★★★☆☆

Catch the wrong end of the spectrum and forever remain obscured.

Marina Xenofontos, Public Domain at Camden Art Centre ★★★☆☆

Marina Xenofontos

Public Domain

★★★☆☆

There’s an unfortunate ‘emerging artist’ vibe to this handful of readymade sculptures.

Dryland, the Greek pavilion in Venice ★★★★☆

Thanasis Deligiannis, Yannis Michalopoulos

Xirómero/Dryland

★★★★☆

It’s Sunday in the village. And the main square is deserted.

Flare-Up at Goldsmiths CCA ★☆☆☆☆

Flare-Up

★☆☆☆☆

The social model of disability meets the Romantic notion that consumption makes the artist a truth-seer.

Vlatka Horvat, The Croatian Pavilion in Venice ★★☆☆☆

Vlatka Horvat

By the Means at Hand

★★☆☆☆

This closed circulation project speaks to and agrees with only itself.

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