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:

The Otolith Group, I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point and Another at greengrassi ★★☆☆☆

The Otolith Group

I See Infinite Distance Between Any Point and Another

★★☆☆☆

The exhibition is a private memorial for Etel Adnan accessible only to members of the art world’s inner circle. And that’s a pity.

Carla Åhlander, Aaron Amar Bhamra, Holding Places at Belmacz ★★★☆☆

Carla Åhlander, Aaron Amar Bhamr

Holding Places

★★★☆☆

The illusion is as good as complete.

Nomenclature for the Time Being at Raven Row ★★☆☆☆

Nomenclature for the Time Being

★★☆☆☆

This is not how good ideas spread.

Tim Walker’s Fairyland at National Portrait Gallery ★☆☆☆☆

Tim Walker

Fairyland

★☆☆☆☆

Topless actors wear wigs, the odd musician touches herself suggestively: groundbreaking!

SACCADES, Leo Arnold with Jo Baer at Brunette Coleman ★★★★☆

Leo Arnold with Jo Baer

SACCADES

★★★★☆

One dare not ask for more.

Some May Work as Symbols at Raven Row ★★★★☆

Some May Work as Symbols: Art Made in Brazil, 1950s–70s

★★★★☆

Art history can catch modernity in splitting from the past and thus from itself.

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