Shay Kun BA, MA

Here's a newish artist with bags of talent, but who hasn't figured out what to do with it yet. He oil-paints uninspiring landscapes which knowledgeable Yanks will assert belong to the Hudson River School, but which Europeans can see as Late Renaissance, and then he uses acrylic paint to add incongruous detail, such as a crashed car or killer whales bursting out of a pond. Okay, the backgrounds aren't satisfying as landscapes - they're too picturesque and need a Davy Crockett on horseback or a sturdy French peasant-woman hauling a cow to pasture -, but why add something incongruous and silly? Blame Goldsmiths College, London, where Kun did his MA. I'll bet it also taught him to invent pretentious, meaningless titles for his exhibitions. How does this grab you? Perversion is The Love We Feel, When Others Feel Love. That's the title of his forthcoming exhibition at the Seventeen Gallery from 31 January to 24 February 2007. I could be wrong, of course. Maybe he got this tripe from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, where he did his BA. But it sounds like Goldsmiths to me. Despite its awful title and unresolved visual style, Kun's exhibition promises to be the most interesting contemporary art show in London for months.