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:

Ron Nagle, Conniption at Modern Art ★★★★★

Ron Nagle

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★★★★★

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Haegue Yang, Leap Year at Hayward Gallery ★★☆☆☆

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★★☆☆☆

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Kate Burling, Anna Choutova, Douglas Cantor, Nettle Grellier, Gosia Kołdraszewska, Lydia Pettit, Olivia Sterling, Sophie Vallance Cantor

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★★☆☆☆

An exhibition about… cherries confuses Chekhov with Nabokov.

The Otolith Group, I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point and Another at greengrassi ★★☆☆☆

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I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point and Another

★★☆☆☆

The exhibition is a private memorial for Etel Adnan accessible only to members of the art world’s inner circle. And that’s a pity.

Aleksandar Denić, The Serbian pavilion in Venice ★★★☆☆

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★★★☆☆

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Nicola Singh: Sincere Seeker at Cubitt ★★☆☆☆

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★★☆☆☆

What would it take for art to look like something, anything once more?

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