With a title like "Attractive Repulsion", we were looking forward to this group show tucked away behind Angel tube.
Sadly the work on the ground floor didn't seem to be as exciting as the title. From the kitsch pictures of wildlife painted in a style that wouldn't have been out of place in a B&B to big abstracts using bits of product logos and the like, it was a bit underwhelming.
Upstairs, thankfully the artwork was better. The brightly coloured Lowry meets Soviet Realism of David Brightmore's paintings grew on us. We quite liked the rabbityness (if such a word exists, obvously) of Lucy Nicholson. The charmingly understated wire sculptures by Steph Rawkins were also good. The huge nude figures we liked less; mainly because if you looked closely at them, you could see the physical impossibilities of the poses.
We love exhibitions that enthuse you so much that you want to go away and create, or bore your friends with mentioning it all the time, or at the very least post something on Facebook about it. Unfortunately this show didn't have that effect. It wasn't rubbish; it just lacked the wow factor. We just weren't sufficiently attracted, repulsed, or even attractively repulsed by the artwork in it.
It is worth a visit if you're in the area. But we wouldn't make a special journey if we weren't.
Words & image by Oliver Gili
Attractive Repulsion is at Candid Arts Trust, Candid Arts Gallery, 3 Torrens Street, EC1V 4SN until 29 March. For more information click here
