Almost endearing show from Riflemaker

This cult West End gallery continues to blur the line between art show and freak-show with an exhibition of tall hair sculptures that look like pomaded 18th-century wigs on steroids.

These are the work of Italian-born but London-based artist Maurizio Anzeri, who braids, plaits, combs and sews mixtures of human and fake hair into tottering vertical confections in his first solo show.

They are bizarre and hilarious but they could soon be coming to a Biennale near you, because they slot right into the current vogue for "historical conceptualism" — contemporary art that raids the styles, looks, folk art and visual technologies from the 19th century and before.

Even so, Anzeri’s best work is on the walls. With a nod to fellow Italo‑London artist Enrico David, he has embroidered colourful constructivist geometries onto old black-and-white photographic portraits.

The effect is as macabre as it is exuberant. Downstairs the air hums with the nostalgic sound of whirring 16mm and slide projectors from the young Romanian artist Catalina Niculescu, who belongs to another much larger current in contemporary art — the army of artists who are fetishising the off-cuts of modernism (Let’s call it Remodernism, shall we?).

In her films and photos, Niculescu scampers past construction sites, that could be minimalist sculptures (if you squint at them hopefully), and takes photographs of the accidental "sculptures" she comes across in the street (a bouquet of flowers atop a metal drainpipe). It’s so earnest, it’s almost endearing.

Exhibitions continue until 23 May (020 7439 0000, www.riflemaker.org).

Catalina Nicolescu/ Maurizio Anzeri
Riflemaker
Portland Place, W1B 1BN