CONDO 2026 Roundup
Oil paint on steel. Radical interventions of the gallery space. Found objects collage. Giant wall socio-political statements. Neon. When you see 50 shows in a weekend you tend to spot patterns, and those are just five recurring themes I found repeating at two or more galleries. Some so evocative of each other that I couldn’t help but think about Hollywood’s “twin film” phenomenon, when films with the same or similar plots are produced and released within a close proximity of time by two different studios.
Which one did it best? You’ll have to go see them all to compare but it’s worth a warning that this year’s CONDO exhibits are shy on visual spectacle and heavy on conceptual, thought-provoking exhibits. There’s just not a lot of work that’s likely to go viral on Instagram, and much like the last few years almost all of the visiting galleries have brought small scale, easy to transport things. More than a few shows could easily compact down to fit inside an EasyJet overhead compartment, and probably did. But that’s a concession I’ll allow given the costs and carbon footprint to run a city-wide exhibition like this.
On that note, if you plan to explore then definitely target, at minimum, a handful of shows in any one go because there are no single must-see, can’t-miss exhibits. Collectively, however, it became pleasantly apparent that the galleries all focussed their shows not on commercial success, instead relying on the power of art when it is challenging, experimental and concept rich.
If you want safe, wall-friendly artworks there’s a few art fairs this week to scratch that itch. CONDO 2026 is for those who want a chance to engage with visuals that require more intellectual rigour than whether or not they match the throw pillows. The preview weekend didn’t sear a lot of imagery in my head, but my brain still hasn’t stopped spinning.
One-Line Reviews
👍🏻👍🏻 Roundup-worthy
👍🏻 If you’re in the area…
👎🏻 NOPE
NOTE: The rating icons and reviews reflect the TOTAL experience at each venue, including BOTH the visiting CONDO exhibits as well as any host gallery shows that run concurrently.
CENTRAL
1 — Arcadia Missa hosting Kayokoyuki (Tokyo)
👍🏻 The only thing interesting about the highly confusing paintings were their highly esoteric titles (“Bear’s anus like a X’mas ornament, matrix men sees UK solar banana”), but the show was redeemed by the most exciting pipework since Super Mario Bros.
2 — Sylvia Kouvali hosting MATTA (Milan)
👍🏻👍🏻 Five retro-futuristic neon wall sconces provide an ethereal glow to Liliane Lijn’s Lilith, a breast cancer phoenix rising in defiance, breaking free from the shattering disease.
3 — Sadie Coles HQ hosting sans titre (Paris)
👎🏻 If it’s sex & drugs you’re after go see Nan Goldin at Gagosian. The giant inflatable ecstasy pill is kinda amusing, though.
4 — TINA hosting Jan Mot (Brussels)
👍🏻 The ascii art will blow your mind when you realise it was made on a typewriter decades before emoji were invented and without any Tipp-Ex / Wite-Out. As for the experimental films? It’s a shame those Sadie Coles rave pills weren’t real.
5 — Phillida Reid hosting CORPUS (Cambridge) & kurimanzutto (Mexico City/New York)
👎🏻 Three works drew my extended attention, but mostly because they were painted on birch bark. Their unique canvas wasn’t enough to overcome their uninspired visuals. Paired with muddled abstract imagery and some bland figurative, none of the subject material in this show seemed to have anything interesting to say.
SOUTH
6-7 — Corvi-Mora & greengrassi hosting Edouard Montassut (Paris) & Fanta-MLN (Milan) & Trautwein Herleth (Berlin)
👍🏻 Half the stuff made me go WTF?! and perpetuated the debate about what makes something art. The other half made me stop and admire the beauty. Most of the works did both. A fab, mostly abstract, contemporary group show. Except for the paper works upstairs. They felt like a concept that hasn’t yet reached a rewarding evolution.
8 — The Sunday Painter hosting Jhaveri Contemporary (Mumbai) & Kendall Koppe (Glasgow)
👍🏻 A series of charming wood sculptures that look like carved marble animals paired nicely with a series of new-ish photos that are hand tinted to look old. As for the knick knack table in the basement? You can easily recreate this if you have a junk drawer at home.
EAST—CENTRAL
9 — Brunette Coleman hosting ZERO... (Milan)
👎🏻 With a floor full of pig hair balls and three pieces of framed fibreboard this is a show that prioritises ideas over aesthetics. Alas, the execution made me wonder if the artists had more than idle curiosity about the concepts they explored.
10 — Hollybush Gardens hosting Galerie Tschudi (Zuoz/Zurich)
👍🏻 An opening text-based work boldly states “We don’t need artists we need thinkers” and that almost excuses the deflated enthusiasm most of these works offer visually, and that’s kinda the point. Taken as a whole this show of research-based art is intended to jog your noggin, but, erm, yes… those two giant clay mounds are exactly what you horndogs think they are.
11 — Amanda Wilkinson hosting Air de Paris (Paris) & Take Ninagawa (Tokyo)
👎🏻 Child-like collage, Xerox’d hands, untranslated Japanese poetry and a subtitled French documentary about a garden. Two years ago at this venue I asked someone if it was worth having to climb all the stairs to see the show. This year the answer is no.
12 — Ginny on Frederick hosting City Galerie Wien (Vienna)
👎🏻 The cast rubber works piqued my interest in process but they’re visually uninteresting. As for the five elaborate wooden cabinets hidden inside bland white boxes? Based on the large opening weekend crowds I simply assumed Freddy’s doing so well that he doesn’t even bother to unpack the art anymore.
13 — Modern Art hosting Crèvecœur (Paris)
👎🏻 The five postcard sized abstracts shipped in for CONDO proved infinitely more intriguing than the underwhelming works by rostered artists in a group show that will make you wonder why this gallery is held in such high regard.
14 — Nicoletti hosting Magician Space (Beijing)
👎🏻 The only thing I have to say about the paintings is that one of them is BIG (3.5 metres wide). As regards the mixed media works? They gave me the same kinda cringe I get reading the overwrought emotions in the poetry of lovestruck teenagers.
EAST
15 — Emalin hosting Peter Freeman, Inc. (New York/Paris)
👍🏻 👍🏻 The main location has a visually OTT yet fascinating conceptual installation about the value and commodification of art, including a working vending machine for you to buy some swag. And in The Clerk’s House: Dan Flavin. (Need I say more?)
16 — Maureen Paley: Studio M hosting Gordon Robichaux (New York)
👎🏻 If you’re familiar with, or a fan of, Agosto Machado then this might be a mildly interesting memorabilia showcase. And if, like me, you’re not, then it won’t be.
17 — Kate MacGarry hosting Chris Sharp Gallery (Los Angeles)
👍🏻 The only pure painting show in CONDO offers two artists with vastly different styles that both reward slow contemplative looking and a calming respite from the chaos of the world. Bring a cuppa and linger.
18 — Public hosting Proyectos Ultravioleta (Guatemala City)
👍🏻 The visiting textile works are a mixed bag, but Raheel Khan’s gallery intervention is all sorts of eerie mystery that just gets better once you learn all the materials used were taken from the space itself. It’s always a joy to see the experimental artworks this gallery promotes.
19 — Union Pacific hosting ATHR (Jeddah/Riyadh/AlUla)
👎🏻 Upstairs: Metal is a pain to paint on and I’m not sure this juice was worth the squeeze. Downstairs: Jason Thompson’s acrylic, pencil and card on wood (collages?) provide just enough interest to justify climbing down the steep steps.
20 — Carlos/Ishikawa hosting CASTLE (Los Angeles)
👍🏻👍🏻 The giant wall of empty promises (and must-read accompanying handout booklet) is a biting satire and a terrific piece of political art about charity inefficiency/corruption. It’s paired with James Iveson’s five small oil portraits next door, that fittingly (ironically? coincidentally?) all look like the sad faces of people who’ve been scammed.
21 — Rose Easton hosting zaza’ (Milan/Naples)
👍🏻 Another fab intervention of space, although visually it only packs a punch if you have more than a passing familiarity with the venue. First time visitors will be seriously confused. The guest show has a lot of quirky works but I spent all my time admiring the bespoke plinth for the sound system.
22 — Soft Opening hosting Company Gallery (New York)
👍🏻 Raw, scratched, shining, defiant, strong and vulnerable are just some of the emotions and actual effects in Sam Lipp’s oil and enamel on steel (portraits). And in the back room? The ridiculousness, and overt sexualisation/fetishisation, of women’s fashion is the target of the Women’s History Museum. At least I thought it was poking fun? Sometimes with haute couture it’s too hard to tell.
23 — The Approach hosting Margot Samel (New York)
👍🏻 Olivia Jia’s “nocturnal palette” paintings and Leroy Johnson’s outsider art model houses are both just about interesting enough to have warranted a show, but neither held my attention. Unlike Hana Miletić, who segmented the main space with jacquard-woven curtains and sacks filled with peach pits. What does it all mean? It was an install that actually made me want to know.
Plan your visit
‘CONDO London 2026’ runs from 14 Jan to 14 Feb at various locations.
Visit the official website and follow @condo_complex on Instagram for more info and the full list of host venues and visiting galleries.
Or just go straight to the Google map showing all the locations.
NOTE: check with each Host venue to confirm opening days/hours.
PLUS…
Subscribe to the Weekly Newsletter. It’s free!