Nicole Eisenman’s ‘Fallen Angels,’ as the title suggests, is the artist’s most down-to-earth show in years. Comprising eleven recent paintings and three sculptures, the exhibition narrows the field of vision to three sites of middle-class living: home, work, beach. Nearly all of the paintings are easel-sized, while two of the sculptures (made with a table and a chair, respectively, from Eisenman’s studio) feel like accidental readymades, even ex situ. The contraction of scale and contemplative tone stands in contrast to Eisenman’s reputation for crowded tableaux and picaresque social scenes, but the work is no less demanding. Here, figures linger, hesitate, repeat themselves; time settles into familiar spaces. The ambition lies not in spectacle but in attention, in the difficulty of staying with what is close at hand. The first two sites—home and work—have collapsed into each other. The third offers no escape. 

One of these works is not like the others. ‘Fallen Angels’ (2025), the painting that gives the show its title, looks like an alternate movie poster for Wong Kar-wai’s 1995 neo-noir. At first, it seems out of place amid the quiet representations of home and work life, but once you remember that Kar-wai shot the film entirely at night, you realize it’s key to the meaning of the whole exhibition. Look through the window or up at the sky in nearly any of these paintings, and you’ll see it immediately. For Eisenman, the world outside is dark and getting darker. 

Artist Talk: Tuesday 24 March 5 – 6 PM 

Opening Reception: Tuesday 24 March 6 – 8 PM 

Gallery address: G/F, 8 Queen’s Road Central