Gabriel Hartley

Floorlines

★★★★★

On until 21 December 2024

Desire breeds introspection. Semi-abstract expanses of ink and detritus make up intricate patterns on Hartley’s compact canvases. Veins of pigment glow on odd-looking stoneware tablets which hang between the pictures. A display of Polaroids whose surfaces erupted in paint and volcanic ash turns the exhibition into a study of itself. 

Desire breeds mistrust. Misprinted pages ripped out from old art history books are the show’s unlisted medium. Hartley pulped Cézannes, Monets, and Twomblys into his paint binder, affording his masters a second and a third chance. That a shameless Rothko miniature somehow survived intact in this mix throws the lot into a crisis of authority.


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

Roe Etheridge, Happy Birthday Louise Parker II at Gagosian ★★☆☆☆

Roe Etheridge

Happy Birthday Louise Parker II

★★☆☆☆

Etheridge’s method finds an extreme in this tiny pass-by display.

Oisín Byrne, Not Marble at Amanda Wilkinson ★★☆☆☆

Oisín Byrne

Not Marble

★★☆☆☆

Byrne has a type. Or rather, he’ll paint you into one.

Shu Lea Cheang at Project Native Informant ★★☆☆☆

Shu Lea Cheang

Scifi New Queer Cinema, 1994-2023

★★☆☆☆

With material this gratuitously explicit and a curator this absent, it’s a miracle that this project wasn’t shut down by the licencing, or indeed art-historical authorities.

Tarek Lakhrissi, Spit at Nicoletti ★★★☆☆

Tarek Lakhrissi

Spit

★★★☆☆

Writing poetry is hard enough.

Liliane Lijn: Seeds of Tomorrow at Sylvia Kouvali ★★★☆☆

Liliane Lijn

Seeds of Tomorrow

★★★☆☆

Are these dreams, floral fields, or psychedelic visions?

Soufiane Ababri, Their mouths at Barbican ★★☆☆☆

Soufiane Ababri

Their mouths were full of bumblebees

★★☆☆☆

Ababri’s paintings for the Grindr generation are more cartoonish than they are from life.

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