Julia Maiuri

Yesterday & The End

★☆☆☆☆

On until 13 January 2024

Maiuri’s oil copies of found film stills and promotional photographs from Hollywood’s golden age make a perfect show for the postage stamp collector. Not only will her bijou paintings fit through the letterbox, they also come in a choice of bright colours that would readily set the first class stamp apart even in a busy collection. Women’s faces and objects lifted from black and white thrillers fill the frames to bursting. Stylised retro typography signals timeless nostalgia. These scenes are at once familiar and unplaceable, as though designed to appeal to all, yet grant the illusion of depth to the would-be connoisseur. For the philatelist on a budget, Maiuri even reprised her first day covers in miniature on unprimed and presumably cheaper canvas, effectively painting each image twice.

But seeing them once would be plenty. One can only imagine that some unconscious loathing of postmen or Hollywood motivated this project. Maiuri’s hatred of paint, on the other hand, is evident.


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

Liam Gillick, The Sleepwalkers at Maureen Paley ★★★☆☆

Liam Gillick

The Sleepwalkers

★★★☆☆

Gillick’s practice lacks obviously consistent character, save for it is sparseness of means and the ungraspability of its referents.

Alvaro Barrington, Grandma’s Land at Sadie Coles ★★★☆☆

Alvaro Barrington

Grandma’s Land

★★★☆☆

The party slumps into a half-voiced political complaint and never recovers. This is what happens when instead of living culture, we ‘celebrate’ it.

New Contemporaries at South London Gallery ★☆☆☆☆

New Contemporaries

★☆☆☆☆

This edition spells ‘stasis’ more than most, and the selectors are to blame.

Liquid Tongues at the Polish pavilion in Venice ★★☆☆☆

Bogna Burska and Daniel Kotowski

Liquid Tongues

★★☆☆☆

Liquid Tongues is a collaboration between two artists and a community choir of deaf and hearing people. Despite drawing on many ideas, the film lands a generic, corporate look. Were Burska and Kotowski not aware of the rich history of linguistic…

I’m so gay for you at Miłość ★★☆☆☆

I'm so gay for you

★★☆☆☆

This “celebration of queerness” is no orgy

Ed Webb-Ingall, A Bedroom for Everyone at PEER ★☆☆☆☆

Ed Webb-Ingall

A Bedroom for Everyone

★☆☆☆☆

How can art improve the lives of communities? Wrong answers only.

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