Eva Rothschild

★★☆☆☆

On until 28 September 2024

A wall built from Harlequin-patterned concrete blocks serves as the backdrop for a pile of black aluminium cans. They look like an out-of-scale González-Torres candy pile but lack any source of tension. Elsewhere, a structure that could make for a children’s climbing frame smoothly blends steel rebar with concrete. It is endearingly crude but somehow too easy to look at. One might want to touch or mount it, but the materials’ soft, steady surfaces dissuade. Even the traces of rust on the grid appear self-conscious and uninviting.

Rothschild has made assemblies of such material perfection, blended pastel gradients, and blemishless extrusions for many years. Her high-spec fabrication inspires desire. But without points of contrast, these sculptures are too clean, too ordered, and too clever for no good reason. This work is “resolved” far past the point of an ideal, saturating the senses and leaving nothing to the imagination.


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

Trackie McLeod, FRUIT II at The Bomb Factory ★★☆☆☆

Trackie McLeod

FRUIT II

FRUIT II

★★☆☆☆

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Bhenji Ra, Biraddali Dancing on the Horizon at Auto Italia ★☆☆☆☆

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Biraddali Dancing on the Horizon

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★☆☆☆☆

Such work was once a mere grift. Now, it is an outright stitch-up.

France-Lise McGurn, Strawberry at Massimodecarlo ★☆☆☆☆

France-Lise McGurn

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★☆☆☆☆

McGurn has created the visual equivalent of elevator music.

Yuki Nakayama, After the Rain at A.I. Gallery ★☆☆☆☆

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After the Rain

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★☆☆☆☆

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Abdullah Al Saadi, Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia, UAE pavilion in Venice ★★★☆☆

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Sites of Memory, Sites of Amnesia

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★★★☆☆

The exhibition’s user experience rivals that of the Apple Store.

Tarek Lakhrissi, Spit at Nicoletti ★★★☆☆

Tarek Lakhrissi

Spit

Spit

★★★☆☆

Writing poetry is hard enough.

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