Claire Fontaine's 'Show Less' at Mimosa House explores visibility and complicity with defaced Courbets and media carpet.

Claire Fontaine's exhibition 'Show Less' is on display at Mimosa House in London until 6 December 2025, showcasing 2025 works that delve into themes of critique and visibility. One installation, 'Newsfloor (The Guardian)', covers the gallery floor with pasted copies of The Guardian, compelling visitors to walk barefoot over media headlines and advertisements, thus creating a dynamic surface that questions politics, capitalism, and representation. The upper level features 'L’origine du monde', which includes 12 reproductions of Gustave Courbet's 1866 painting, each marred with spray paint that partially obscures the vulva, referencing recent protests against art. Another piece, 'Intersections', is a lightbox shaped like a Venn diagram, highlighting the concepts of 'witnesses', 'perpetrators', and 'victims' in vibrant colors, addressing gendered violence. Additionally, 'I am free' comprises 12 framed, crumpled sheets that repeat a phrase about ancestral duty, utilizing bleeding colors to evoke historical trauma. The exhibition maintains a critical tension, embracing contradictions without resolution, with varying effectiveness across its lightboxes, paintings, and sculptures. Alexander Harding reviewed the exhibition for ArtReview in November 2025, emphasizing how the pieces challenge the visibility of critique without reinforcing opposing dynamics.