Pop art lacks some fizz

Ever since Andy Warhol gave us his rainbowrendered Marilyns, iconic cinema has been considered fair, artistic fodder. Following his lead, Benjamin Turnbull, a young Richmond graduate reared in the Warhol, Peter Blake and Bob Stanley school of pop art, chooses to single out the heroes and villains of the silver screen - 'the faces we have cheered and feared' - for his spare, black and white acrylics.

All the big hitters from four decades of cult world cinema are here striking their signature poses from Clint to Caan, McQueen to Caine, Brando, Harrison and Pacino.

However, unlike Warhol, who reacted against those disassociated, commercialised images and icons by muddling them with fun, frivolity and Technicolor, Turnbull chooses to transplant his mirror-images wholesale, standing them in stark isolation, a cultural representation rather than an individual interpretation.

Technically, Turnbull's work feels very graphic - a stubborn reminder, no doubt, of his early career in design - as we stare down Dirty Harry's loaded barrel and Caan faces off to the viewer (both pictured). And not surprisingly, there's a passion bordering on obsession from the artist who admits a stubborn love for The Man From UNCLE and a staple childhood diet of cult American classics.

Still, the technical ability swamps the passion, and offers little more than instant recognition; enough perhaps to merit their exhibition in a cinema's subterranean bar but not, as yet, sufficient to secure a spot in an art world that demands a witty twist rather than a well-crafted trigger.

Heroes vs Villains. Until Sept 26, Curzon Soho, 93-107 Shaftesbury Avenue W1, daily noon to 10pm, free.
Tel: 020 7734 2255.
Tube: Leicester Square/Piccadilly Circus