There’s joy in geometry. To make his tableaux, Relph poked circular and rectangular holes in packaging cardboard he found in the alley behind a Manhattan Comme de Garçons store. He added to this some stickers and stencils and thus made the perfect wall decoration for a graphic designer’s dining room. But there’s little for the eye to hang on and none of the punk culture of Relph’s earlier practice emerges from the works. Is the clothing brand iconic or ironic? Why is the cardboard so clean? It would be more fun to play with a child’s wooden shapes toy – a close relative of these plates – than to figure this out.
Nick Relph Fils, ta vision!
Nick Relph
Fils, ta vision!
★☆☆☆☆
On until 28 October 2023
notes and notices are short and curt exhibition reviews. Read more:
Gina Fischli
Gina Fischli
Love Love Love
★★★★☆
What good it is to be best in show when the competition is lame, crooked, or outright fake?
Nicole Eisenman
Nicole Eisenman
What Happened
★★★☆☆
There’s a Bosch hellscape dedicated to Trump and a whole “basket of deplorables” polishing their guns in a prepper cell.
Justin Chance
Justin Chance
Motherhood
★★☆☆☆
If only he stopped there.
Max Boyla
Max Boyla
Crying like a fire in the sun
★★☆☆☆
Rothko’s abstractions are said to have induced tears in viewers overwhelmed by abstraction. Staring at the sun here, however, barely causes blindness.
Divine Southgate-Smith
Divine Southgate-Smith
Navigator
★☆☆☆☆
It is too late to save the regime, yet too early to mourn it.
Alejandro Piñeiro Bello
Alejandro Piñeiro Bello
Entre El Día Y La Noche
★☆☆☆☆
If only they were smaller, Piñera Ballo’s paintings would be a great hit in the shopping centre gallery your ex-army uncle just opened in Surrey. He’s gambling with the family’s savings, you condescend, but so is Pace with their show.…
