Patricia Ferguson

Each Little Scar

★★★★☆

Curated by Brenna Horrox
On until 6 October 2024

No medium is better suited to anxiety and dread than the menacing dark line of the copperplate print. The late Ferguson’s 1980s graphic and charcoal works trace life in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles. Fear and loss left deep scratches in the faces of the women and children whom these works catch in moments of great trepidation. In one, a knock on the door wakes up a mother’s basest of instincts. In another, a liberatory political banner is a deadly trap.

“There is a gun in her home, and she is afraid”, marks a print titled Ireland. There is no defiance here, and no resolution in peace, either. Ferguson’s later works veered into media abstraction. Three sizeable plates of copper scoured seemingly at random and bearing signs of rust are hard to view through the gallery’s window. This isn’t on purpose, but it gives the show respite.

Elsewhere, the display reveals an anxiety over the status of prints as worthy art objects. A bizarre contraption of steel and distressed wood inspired by Ferguson’s subjects serves as a counter for her smaller coppers. It needlessly compensates for a deficiency not manifest in the work.


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

Mohammad Ghazali, Trilogy: Then… at Ab-Anbar ★★★★☆

Mohammad Ghazali

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

Aleksandar Denić

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★★★☆☆

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Gina Fischli, Love Love Love at Soft Opening ★★★★☆

Gina Fischli

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★★★★☆

What good it is to be best in show when the competition is lame, crooked, or outright fake?

Maja Malou Lyse: Things to Come at the Danish pavilion in Venice ★★★★★

Maja Malou Lyse

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★★★★★

Eros is dead. Long live Eros.

Zyad Menk: Scar Tissue at Ginny on Frederick ★★☆☆☆

Zyad Menk

Scar Tissue

★★☆☆☆

History’s scrapheap with no interpretative powers.

A Comparative Dialogue Act, Luxemburg pavilion in Venice ★★☆☆☆

Andrea Mancini, Every Island

A Comparative Dialogue Act

★★☆☆☆

Stage fright is real. Cowardice is another thing altogether.

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