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:

Lutz Bacher, AYE! at Raven Row ★★★★☆

Lutz Bacher

AYE!

★★★★☆

There’s joy in repetition. There’s joy in repetition. There’s joy in repetition. There’s joy in repetition. There’s joy in repetition. There’s joy in repetition.

RE/SISTERS at Barbican ★★☆☆☆

RE/SISTERS

★★☆☆☆

Too many deadpan landscape photographs turn intrigue into fatigue and into paralysis.

Trevor Yeung, Soft Ground, at Gasworks ★★☆☆☆

Trevor Yeung

Soft Ground

★★☆☆☆

It’s stressful enough to fuck in the forest for fear of passers-by or the police; imagine having to also look out for curators.

Yvonne Mabs Francis: Breakdown at Yamamoto Keiko Rochaix ★★☆☆☆Yvonne Mabs

Yvonne Mabs Francis

Breakdown

★★☆☆☆

Does an artist get to participate in the construction of her outsider status?

Freudian Typo at Delfina Foundation ★★☆☆☆

Freudian Typo

Condensed Word, Displaced Flesh

★★☆☆☆

The problem of artists who confuse graphic design with art is that they also mistake sloganeering for critique.

Ebun Sodipo, An Ominous Presence at Soft Opening ★★☆☆☆

Ebun Sodipo

An Ominous Presence

★★☆☆☆

Look, and it’s all on the surface.

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