27 Oct-30 Jan 2005. New paintings.

Paladino 27 Oct-30 Jan 2005. There is something ineffably wrong with the slam-bang new paintings by Paladino, the Wunderkind of the "Transvanguardia", the Italian art movement sponsored, or even invented, by the art critic A.B. Oliva.

Paladinos sculpture, which, brooding black or gold, seems to hark back to archaic rites in its austere mystery, is extremely pleasing to us spoilt moderns. An effigy with a head pared down to essentials like a dressmakers dummy, characterises them. He has always painted and made beautifully enigmatic drawings, as well as his sculptural efforts, which are in all the most significant and trendy international shows today.

In this exhibition, with a tough, pseudo-wild gesture, he has splashed three huge canvases with paint. One is in ink-black on white, one is in orange on red, one in deep, almost fluorescent blues and here he seems to be the least convincing. It's all great latter-day action painting bravura. In each, the dummy head is the only personal signature. But for the rest the works look like giant virtuoso exercises; almost anonymous, like backdrops done by a clever scene painter. Edith Schloss