Piet Mondrian was probably the first artist this century to set the "but is it art" ball rolling. At least with Picasso you could spot the occasional chopped up guitar or mangled face. Mondrian dispensed with pictures of things altogether, reduced his paintings to flat planes of pure colour (arranged according to well established artistic conventions, but that's another story) and invented abstract art.

Bristol-based artist Steven Marshall has added a new twist to this vision by borrowing Mondrian's designs and populating them with office workers, builders and pieces of furniture.The whole thing is a sly poke at the ideas that gave birth to this century's most influential movement. Marshall's figures are generally faceless but beautifully observed, schematic but with a tender handling of gesture and pose.

This is witty, well-informed and irreverent stuff: one of his characters even has the impertinence to add a lick of paint to Mondrian's more severe verticals.

There's a double irony here, though, because by getting rid of traditional icons of realism such as people, fruit and flowers, the Dutch pioneer heralded a new reality: sculptors and particularly architects were fascinated by this new aesthetic. Buildings didn't need pretty add-on bits such as columns, plinths or gargoyles any more. They could be purely functional - indeed there was a certain beauty in their simplicity. The soaring glass towers or squat apartments of Mies van der Rohe drew heavily on these themes and became the prototypes for a million mediocre office blocks thrown up over 30 post war years. So although Mondrian may seem to have existed in a universe apparently divorced from reality, a whole generation has been living in designs indirectly of his creation.

Marshall is aware of this and is respectful enough to allow Mondrian the last laugh. He does make the point, however, that modern isn't modern any more (hence the title). The blazing patchwork of primary colours which dominates this temporary gallery (appropriately once the office of an archicectural design company! ) is deliberately anachronistic, as if to point out that the most radical ideas can end up looking jaded. What's more, the art-world came to terms with the passing of modemism at least a decade ago and at last count even post-modemism was looking a Campbell's soup can short of the full canvas. As an in-joke this is great fun but now that the contemporary ethic of ironic art is threatening to implode on itself any day, is a joke with a fairly short shelf-life. (Mike Gartside)

Venue 13-29th May 1994