Old Street gallery Cabinet is showing art giant Ed Atkins at Basel Unlimited, but Elephant grew very fond of their booth upstairs. It is a group show, that has been curated with a sense of both cohesion and eclectic variety.
It also happens to be right on trend, with an orangey-yellow glow filling the booth in a manner we have seen rather a lot over the week. This richness – emanating from the back of the booth from Mark Leckey’s As If – sets the vibe for the rest of the work, spilling a golden light onto the items around it.
Jana Euler’s Equilibrium is a gloopy painting of two frogs enjoying a moment together which picks up on the colour scheme, with browns, golds and sludgy greens creating a warm overall hue. Both frogs are repulsively warty but beautifully detailed.
The richness of style is mirrored throughout, with the marble effect surrounding Lucy McKenzie’s Untitled adding to the sense of luxuriousness (this luxury was refreshingly modern amongst the historical pieces of Basel’s ground floor galleries — art opulence with a totally contemporary feel). Again, this was offset by vulgarity, with the top figure in the work drawn lying bent over on the floor. A smaller character at the bottom of the canvas, sitting bored over a plate of pasta, reinforced this show as something nicely disjointed.
These detailed paintings were contrasted with the clean lines of some of the other works, with the large letter ‘M’ and Marc Camille Chaimowicz’s paired back model for the new gallery window adding an element of sharp design.
Booths can often feel like a desperate cramming in of wares to flog, but this was a really well considered collection of works that stood very strongly as their own exhibition.
Cabinet, 49-59 Old Street, London EC1 V 9HX
