James Welling and Bernd & Hilla Becher

★★★☆☆

On until 19 April 2025

Not taking the Becher’s name in vain was once the sole Düsseldorf school commandment. Welling trained elsewhere and, besides, his claim on typology is also a decades-long story. Yet this two-venue paring of the three photographers’ deadpan architectural meditations is a dead giveaway of Welling as a mere imitator.

Perhaps. The Bechers recorded industrial phenomena with such restraint that their lens critique was evident in even a single snapshot. Welling’s veneration of brutalist concrete – his lens turns to Washington’s infamous HUD building now outlawed under Trump’s classical architecture edict – borders on a fetish by contrast. But if one no longer needs to look at Bernd and Hilla’s grain silos, Welling’s quasi-opportunistic fixation leads to fresher discoveries.


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

Talar Aghabshian, Solace of the Afterimage at Marfa’ at The Approach ★★☆☆☆

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★★☆☆☆

The carpet dealer gallerist’s zeal reveals the work’s lamentable inadequacy. 

Maso Nakahara: Floating Through Time at Pippy Houldsworth ★★★★☆

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Floating Through Time

Floating Through Time

★★★★☆

Biblical floods, the comet’s fall, and the odd tsunami mercilessly toss Nakahara’s protagonists about.

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

France-Lise McGurn

Strawberry

Strawberry

★☆☆☆☆

McGurn has created the visual equivalent of elevator music.

I’m so gay for you at Miłość ★★☆☆☆

I'm so gay for you

I'm so gay for you

★★☆☆☆

This “celebration of queerness” is no orgy

Onyeka Igwe, history is a living weapon in yr hand at PEER ★★☆☆☆

Onyeka Igwe

history is a living weapon in yr hand

history is a living weapon in yr hand

★★☆☆☆

The Mavericks wanted a weapon, Igwe leaves them a toy.

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

Deimantas Narkevičus

The Fifer

The Fifer

★★☆☆☆

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

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