Richard Aldrich, Prunella Clough, Masanori Tomita, Anh Trần, Terry Winters

Place Revisited

★★★★☆

On until 5 April 2025

Modern Art churns out so many good painting shows that one suspects it of insider trading. Indeed, there is a trick to this programme: each line-up drags a historical anchor that quells any hesitation of the medium’s future value. In this portfolio, the late Clough’s abstractions – straight out of the fruit bowl and the back garden as John Berger had them – underwrite the risk. One canvas, barely obscured by its subject matter, bears a pair of comedy teeth marks that leave the forensic accountant puzzled.

It’s not like the rest of the deal is sub-prime, though. One may quibble with Aldrich’s emoji-like palette but even it drinks up this context. Winter’s cloud paintings are exuberance alone, and markets love that. Trần’s abstractions of fairytales and Tomita’s rich textures are the wildcards, their paint too fresh to make a claim on the matter’s past performance. 


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

I’m so gay for you at Miłość ★★☆☆☆

I'm so gay for you

★★☆☆☆

This “celebration of queerness” is no orgy

Yuki Nakayama, After the Rain at A.I. Gallery ★☆☆☆☆

Yuki Nakayama

After the Rain

★☆☆☆☆

Can an installation be too site-specific?

Xie Nanxing, Hello, Portrait! at Thomas Dane ★★★★☆

Xie Nanxing

Hello, Portrait!

★★★★☆

Looking at Xie’s portraits is a little like wearing a virtual reality headset over only one eye.

Max Boyla, Crying like a fire in the sun at Workplace ★★☆☆☆

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.

Özgür Kar, Heavy Ground at Emalin ★★★☆☆

Özgür Kar

Heavy Ground

★★★☆☆

Kar’s insight a fly’s life – or, to have it his way, the whole universe – is fleeting.

Noah Davis at The Barbican ★★★☆☆

Noah Davis

★★★☆☆

Davis’ canvases give an account of time more sensitively than the Victorian portrait photograph

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