Sin Wei Kin

Portraits

★★☆☆☆

On until 16 December 2023

This exhibition combines the most vulgar of all art school tropes: juvenile narcissism, NFT kitsch, and mindless referentialism. In five video still portraits, Sin takes the place of art history’s celebrated subjects including Caravaggio’s Narcissus and Man Ray’s Kiki. The characters, distinguished more by their plastic wigs and colourful make-up than their presence, project sombre pensiveness.

But their demand for attention is tiresome because these drag figures are all artifice. Sin, dressed up as Frida Kahlo or Mona Lisa is only formally distinct from the TikTok girls who digitally adorn their faces for likes. In this pictorial metaverse where substance is exchanged for crypto, there is no time for the human and no space for art.


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

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Bad Luck Rock at Josh Lilley ★★☆☆☆

Sula Bermúdez-Silverman

Bad Luck Rock

★★☆☆☆

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Dayanita Singh at Frith Street Gallery ★★☆☆☆

Dayanita Singh

★★☆☆☆

Singh’s pictures cold have been made by at least three other Frith Street artists.

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.

Talar Aghabshian, Solace of the Afterimage at Marfa’ at The Approach ★★☆☆☆

Talar Aghbashian

Solace of the Afterimage

★★☆☆☆

The carpet dealer gallerist’s zeal reveals the work’s lamentable inadequacy. 

Auudi Dorsey at PM/AM ★★★★☆

Auudi Dorsey

★★★★☆

Dorsey records the human experience with the true universalism of paint.

Material Rites at Gathering ★★★☆☆

Fritsch, Genzken, Oldenburg, Shani, Sherman, Smithson, Thek

Material Rites

★★★☆☆

The instincts are right, but too much makes sense to make sense together.

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