Yuki Nakayama

After the Rain

★☆☆☆☆

On until 2 June 2024

Can an installation be too site-specific? Even without the help of an artist, this gallery’s quirky interior could not conceal the evidence of the site’s former life as an upscale spa. The showroom was once the steam room and the luxury marble floors tickled the feet of swimmers rather than entice would-be collectors. 

Nakayama’s sculptures and paintings echo handrails, lane lines, and life rings, as if to tempt the patron’s mind to the riviera with beach sand and sailboats. These fixtures were once useful. Today, the artist’s facile interventions only expose the gimmick.


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

Dream Stream, the Chinese pavilion in Venice ★★☆☆☆

Dream Stream

★★☆☆☆

What if appropriation and regurgitation led to domination?

Place Revisited at Modern Art ★★★★☆

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

Place Revisited

★★★★☆

One suspects the gallery of insider trading.

Ithaca at Herald St ★★★★☆

Christopher Aque, Alekos Fassianos, Luigi Ghirri, Jessie Stevenson, George Tourkovasilis

Ithaca

★★★★☆

This show drips with affectation that wouldn’t survive a minute tomorrow.

Leah Clements: Apophenia at PEER ★★☆☆☆

Leah Clements

Apophenia

★★☆☆☆

It takes a lot to pull off an essay film, and Clements is no essayist.

Yannis Maniatakos, Four Paintings at Sylvia Kouvali ★★★☆☆

Estate of Yiannis Maniatakos

Four Paintings

★★★☆☆

Examining the paintings in the gallery’s bright lights doesn’t lift their mystery.

Ranti Bam: Sacred Groves at South London Gallery

Ranti Bam

Sacred Groves

★★★☆☆

The whimsical freedom of Bam’s overgrown pot plants is an illusion.

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