Yi To

Terminal Lucidity

★★★★☆

On until 5 April 2025

To’s images evade representation even though on the paintings’ surface, her impulse is taxonomical. The canvases – washes of murky greens, rotten teals, and the odd flash of lifeless brown – are either isolated records of the lost, quotidian human or close-up studies of unexplained supernatural phenomena. Half-washed-off cave markings, crumbling Art Deco ornaments, and sheer rot mix to produce undecipherable records. 

When they confuse the scholar, these images are captivating. But To gives her hand away too easily. Moments of clarity – ironically, the last thing one wants of her paintings – reveal that she determined each subject’s cypher before she even picked up her brush. That Lascaux bison was but a hoax.

Give it some time, however, because all evidence erodes eventually. Within an aeon or two, matter may still win over the mind.


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

Klara Lidén, Square Moon at Sadie Coles ★★☆☆☆

Klara Lidén

Square Moon

★★☆☆☆

This isn’t Times Square in a blackout.

Alia Farid, Elsewhere at Chisenhale ★★★☆☆

Alia Farid

Elsewhere

★★★☆☆

There is no answer in the work. Its cause and the object become enmeshed in a bland, exoticized mess. 

New Contemporaries at South London Gallery ★☆☆☆☆

New Contemporaries

★☆☆☆☆

This edition spells ‘stasis’ more than most, and the selectors are to blame.

Wilhelm Sasnal at Sadie Coles ★★★☆☆

Wilhelm Sasnal

★★★☆☆

Only in flights of anger does this vision come close to becoming believable.

Carole Ebtinger, Esther Gatón at South Parade ★★☆☆☆

Carole Ebtinger, Esther Gatón

phosphorescence of my local lore

★★☆☆☆

Rot overpowered this subject and came for the object next. 

Odoteres Ricardo de Ozias at David Zwirner ★★★☆☆

Odoteres Ricardo de Ozias

★★★☆☆

These images are perfectly charming even to a viewer possessed of a cold anthropological eye. The troubling part is in realising just how far ‘outside’ the ideas are.

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