Jenna Bliss, Buck Ellison, Jasmine Gregory

Genuine Fake Premium Economy

★★★☆☆

On until 5 July 2026

Reorienting contemporary art to questions of labour and class, as this exhibition purports to, would be outright reactionary. Elsewhere, even the queer and post-colonial revolutions are already passé, having made no one’s life better. What would it take, hypothetically, for a struggling artist to take control of the means of aesthetic production?

That is not the aim of Genuine Fake Premium Economy, however. Gregory’s oil renderings of Patek Philippe adverts set the tone, pointing to other people’s desires as the object of capital. Ellison’s sparse arrangement of office paraphernalia calls for aesthetic refusal and has a feel of American Psycho to it, granted. But his wealth management graphics link art and capital in an entirely different manner. 

Bliss’s pre-2008 art fair satire flic, by contrast, is well observed, funny, and well cast. Yet it, too, understands art in terms the contemporary can no longer bear. Together, these slight objects only obfuscate, promoting despite themselves indulgent, out-of-date theories. 


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

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

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

Judith Dean at South Parade ★★★★☆

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★★★★☆

Holbein’s skulls impresses no one anymore.

Nanténé Traoré at Sultana and Amanda Wilkinson ★★☆☆☆

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She says it's the high energy

★★☆☆☆

Bodies clash with lights in front of Traoré’s Narcissus camera.

C. Rose Smith, Talking Back to Power at Autograph ★★☆☆☆

C. Rose Smith

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★★☆☆☆

There’s no conversation, no challenge, no win.

Florian Meisenberg, What does the smoke know of the fire? at Kate MacGarry, ★★★★☆

Florian Meisenberg

What does the smoke know of the fire?

★★★★☆

Meisenberg’s paintings are either the product of a conspiracy or documents of a conspiracy theory.

Thibault Aedy, Dilara Koz at Filet ★★★☆☆

Thibault Aedy, Dilara Koz

Caressed and Polished and Drained and Washed

★★★☆☆

These ideas can’t last beyond the pop-up show’s closing date.

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