Jack O'Brien

The Reward

★★☆☆☆

On until 29 December 2024

A floating double helix assembled from readymade steel staircase modules is the crowning centrepiece of O’Brien’s Frieze prize exhibition. These weighty sculptures hang in the air adorned with chrome balls. The spirals hide behind comically giant, loose-knitted stockings stretched over the forms’ voids. Hundreds of acrylic panels frost the gallery’s windows nearby, as though to form a horizon.

This is intriguing by scale and slightly odd in composition, but the effect is hardly worth a prizegiving ceremony. There is no discernible rationale for O’Brien’s materials to have come together so and no narrative emerges from the tonnes of steel and plastic his work consumed. Next door, the artist hastily installed a bunch of steel traffic bollards in glass display cabinets salvaged from a 1970s department store. Why is anyone’s guess: the work entirely fails to account for itself. Its only redeeming feature is that despite their simplicity, these smaller structures are somehow more disappointing than the steel DNA hanging.


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

Alex Katz, Spring at Timothy Taylor ★★☆☆☆

Alex Katz

Spring

★★☆☆☆

The emperor’s clothes have moth holes.

Deimantas Narkevičus, The Fifer at Maureen Paley ★★☆☆☆

Deimantas Narkevičus

The Fifer

★★☆☆☆

In the age of the decolonial, this is as quaint as it is outmoded

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Bad Luck Rock at Josh Lilley ★★☆☆☆

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman

Bad Luck Rock

★★☆☆☆

This is a poor man’s version of history or a philistine collector’s absolution.

Gray Wielebinski, The Red Sun is High, the Blue Low at ICA ★☆☆☆☆

Gray Wielebinski

The Red Sun is High, the Blue Low

★☆☆☆☆

I knew that it was possible to understand art and life less after seeing an exhibition. I didn’t, however, imagine that experiencing Wielebinski’s work twice would only compound such damage.

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.

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, It Will End In Tears at Barbican Curve ★★☆☆☆

Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum

It Will End In Tears

★★☆☆☆

With the right lighting, this story could be a mid-century colonial classic.

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