Phung-Tien Pham

doesn't work

★★☆☆☆

On until 15 February 2025

Despite comprising only a handful of elements – nearly monochrome acrylic canvases that pretend they’re not art, a Tintin tribute video, some flat-pack furniture adorned by its previous owner, and the props of a failed stage magic trick – Pham’s installation induces a sense of encapsulation and excess. Without turning its gaze away from the mirror, it mumbles “Look at me, I’m a little crazy”, as though anyone but the artist could guess what brought this condition on. 

This staging is reminiscent of Covid lockdowns that turned half the world into infantile narcissists. The pandemic, alas, is now down the memory hole and Pham’s irreverent performance – a white stuffed toy dog, so cute – middles in the TikTok algorithm without a rationale. An air fryer abandoned in the street outside the gallery, however, spells the sorry end for fad aesthetics of fad ideas.


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

things fall apart; the centre cannot hold at Tabula Rasa ★★★★☆

Elli Antoniou, Ali Glover, Richard Dean Hughes

things fall apart; the centre cannot hold

★★★★☆

These works could bear witness to the birth of a star or the heat death of the universe. The curators don’t know which.

Theodore Ereira-Guyer, Jandyra Waters: We Lost Lots of Beautiful Things at Elizabeth Xi Bauer

Theodore Ereira-Guyer, Jandyra Waters

We Lost Lots of Beautiful Things

★★★★☆

The human mind is mimetic – all art is representation.

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.

Kevin Brisco Jr, But I Hear There Are New Suns at Union Pacific ★★☆☆☆

Kevin Brisco Jr

But I Hear There Are New Suns

★★☆☆☆

I didn’t get to see this show. Perhaps for the best.

Tommy Camerno, Delirious at Filet ★★☆☆☆

Tommy Camerno

Delirious

★★☆☆☆

What’s left of the show are stage props that feed adolescent imaginations with false memories of the long-finished party.

William S. Burroughs at October Gallery

William S. Burroughs

★★☆☆☆

Burroughs should be sexy, right?

×