Young at art

Ho hum, another student show of 'emerging young talent'. This one's been going since 1949, so perhaps one ought to sit up and pay due attention. But it is difficult to feel much excitement about this year's line-up.

For a start, it's the first time the exhibition has been held in the difficult thoroughfare space of the Barbican's Curve Gallery, which puts several of the video artists at a distinct disadvantage. With only one screen in the rather narrow entrance showing around five films on a loop, it's difficult to give them any real individual attention, let alone hear much of what's going on.

Of the drawers and painters, Edd Pearman's paintings of faceless men in suits doing corporate group hugs stand out as witty and carefully executed. But maybe this is because most of the 2D works are just so forgettable. Daniel Sinsel's watercolour paintings show lots of floating penises against tranquil landscapes, while it's difficult to make out whether Lucinda Metcalf's coloured biro on whiteboard landscapes are knowingly bad or just plain bad.

Huge sculptural installations dominate the space, including an enormous wax carcass by John Summers and Ben Maymen's abstract sculptures of looping white lines made of polyester resin. Matt O'Dell's cardboard and aluminium floor piece shows the remains of a crashed plane. It's rather tasteless, and maybe he just lost the will to include scattered limbs as well.