The Easel

8th April 2025

Ed Atkins’ Digital Surrealism Unfolds in Tate Britain’s Largest Survey to Date

Jessie James | Stupiddope | 4th April 2025

As mundane digital functions infiltrate daily life, we all acquire a digital representation of ourselves. Atkins survey show in London focuses on these versions of  ourselves, on the “me and “not-me”. His work deals with “the in-betweens: between physical and digital”, in ways that are deeply human. Emotion matters, death matters, people are awkward. “Atkins dares to ask what it means to be human when your body is rendered in code and your feelings come with a loading screen”.

Mahtab Hussain: What Did You Want to See?

Veronica Simpson | Studio International | 7th April 2025

British Asians in Birmingham – predominantly Muslim – have long suffered racist stereotyping. Having been criticised for being either too Asian or too British, Hussain has had to think hard about identity. A solo show features portraits of individual British Asians together with images of Birmingham’s 160 mosques. Far from confirming the usual stereotypes, it’s a study in “mind-boggling diversity”, which is Hussain’s point. Perhaps like himself, “Birmingham [has] a very messy identity. It doesn’t know who it is.”

1st April 2025

Celia Paul faces the ghosts of her past

Matthew Spurling | Apollo | 28th April 2025

It took an effort for Paul to make Lucien Freud part of her story, rather than she being part of his. It’s a point of departure for several reviews of her new show that focuses on portraits. Paul denies being a portraitist – “if I’m anything, I have always been an autobiographer”. Presumably what she means is that her viewpoint when painting is not representational but emotional. Perhaps that means the portraits in this show are really about memory – “what you have once been close to stays with you.”.

Astonishing Things: The Drawings of Victor Hugo at the Royal Academy review : ‘unnerving’

Melanie McDonough | The Standard | 20th April 2025

When Victor Hugo wasn’t writing Les Misérables etc, he sketched, drew or doodled. Most critics like his work, even though much of it “is very odd indeed”. There are humanoid mushrooms, “weirdly modern abstractions”, imaginary castles and more. Should these “competent” works be judged as if done by a “serious” artist? Perhaps not, because we are looking for other reasons, hoping for other insights. We look to see Victor Hugo, a great writer. And what do we find? Suggests one writer, “what an artist, what a soul”.

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