Oisín Byrne

Not Marble

★★☆☆☆

On until 31 May 2025

Byrne has a type. Or rather, he’ll paint you into one. Juno, Jorge, and Lucian dropped into the studio straight from a Just Stop Oil fundraiser. It’s now Jasper’s and Orlando’s turn to glue themselves to the gallery floor. Leave one hand free for the bubbly, though, Quentin. Move over, Naoise, you’re blocking the light.

One must first giggle that these throwaway acrylics have the power to inspire such frivolous contempt. Byrne’s square board portraits, uniform as though on a networking app’s grid, promote each sitter in their most studied spontaneity. The painter’s hand is the flattering filter called “Tuscan villa” or maybe “Granta”, so ubiquitous that calling it out is no use.

Yet that envy gives way to desire. Who wouldn’t fall for red bookish Joe, or MFA cheekbone Gary? Has art ever not been about class distinction and sex? 


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

Yorgos Prinos, Prologue to a Prayer at Hot Wheels ★★★★☆

Yorgos Prinos

Prologue to a Prayer

★★★★☆

Prinos’ frames are precise, tight, and formal, as though the street were his studio.

Raed Yassin: Eternal Ghost at Cedric Bardawill ★★☆☆☆

Raed Yassin

Eternal Ghost

★★☆☆☆

Pictures of other people’s children don’t sell.

Christopher Aque, Alexandre Khondji at Sweetwater and Studio M ★★★★★

Christopher Aque, Alexandre Khondji

★★★★★

Aesthetic cognition or crossword puzzles only rarely bring such perverse pleasure.

Eva Rothschild at Modern Art ★★☆☆☆

Eva Rothschild

★★☆☆☆

These sculptures are too clean, too ordered, and too clever for no good reason.

Oh, the Storm at Rodeo ★☆☆☆☆

Oh, the Storm

★☆☆☆☆

This exhibitions is trying to explain the concept of ‘crazy paving’ to a blind man. It’s impossible to tell where a work ends and the wall begins.

Poppy Jones, Solid Objects at Herald St ★★★★☆

Poppy Jones

Solid Objects

★★★★☆

The lightness of the painter’s gesture cries out for a sledgehammer that would relieve the viewer of his doubt.

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