Phoebe Unwin - A Non-Review

[CAP]

I was going to review Unwin’s Man Made show at Wilkinson (ends 6th March) but on second thoughts it doesn’t suit my purpose. I had planned to take up some issues prompted by the Fade Away show @ Transition, for which I wrote a piece, here and here (but not here, since WWR’s new forum was not in place then). It seemed like a good opportunity to place her fresh and clammy pictograms in a broader context of contemporary abstraction.

I web-researched her for a while, with dwindling enthusiasm. I can link to positives for the show, from The Guardian and Undercover Painter’s blog, and negatives from Annabel Tilley (she links the show to Fade Away as well) and Liam Scully, and the usual endless parroting of web-copy in New York, Milan and Falmouth (yes, Falmouth) and I looked at some of her old stuff over on Saatchi, but finally, it just wasn’t worth it. It happens sometimes. You go down a road so far, but that doesn't make it the right road.

So make up your own minds. She’s terribly charming, girlie and popular. Go to the lite, while you still can. I'll stay down here.

[MICC]

Liam Scully's review was pretty close to the mark for that show I think. Not much going on either in subject/content, painterly interest, composition or colour. It seems like that is always the way over at the Wilkinson space, such potential to show something really knockout, and yet it always disappoints. I'd really like to see a Kirsten Glass and Peter Lamb show in there, that'd blow the fustiness out of the place.