Joseph O’Rourke: Coming Soon at Paradise Works

Paradise Works presents Coming Soon, a new solo show from painter Joseph O’Rourke.

One of Manchester’s favourite artist-led galleries temporarily becomes a traditional white cube space to showcase not-quite-traditional painting. Coming Soon showcases work made by O’Rourke in the last two years, and while it is thoroughly a painting show, it employs fragments of daily life as surfaces to paint on. The variety of materials imbues the work with a scrappy aesthetic that’s balanced out by the range of experiences it provides to the unsuspecting viewer. There is so much to look at.

At first glance the show seems compact, with the larger paintings given lots of room to breathe. As you start to look at each work more closely though, you’ll quickly realize that you could spend a lot of time here. The paintings are layered, not with the glow of underpainting but with collaged elements: bits of wood, paper, metal sheets, magazine clippings, and cardboard squares, all of which become active and significant participants in the final result. They seem to be composed of the detritus of studio life, magically compiled into compositions that are not only aesthetically satisfying but evocative too.

One of the largest pieces on display, Somethin’ ain’t right (2025) features plastic, grass and thin wooden planks amongst a long list of other materials. It is this piece that makes it hard to leave the room, calling you back with each new detail to be discovered and with the expertly gradual changes of hue across the three canvases that make up the piece. 

It depicts people’s legs; a tiny wooden bench on one side; a chequered floor in another corner with ladders climbing up to nowhere in the dark night; a lit-up apartment block; a small bin filled with crumbled up papers or tissues. The words ‘annoying advert’ somewhere towards the centre are small but bright – it makes the painting feel like a fragmented cityscape, pierced by glowing billboards. 

In fact, many of O’Rourke’s paintings feel a little bit like trying to read a Guardian article online and having your attention pulled in all directions by the ads and other suggested content to move onto, except this time it’s a very pleasant read. Your eyes race around the surface in search of more benches, more eyes, more silhouettes. It’s a satisfying reflection of our times.

The painted DVD cases from the series Disc Unknown (2024-present) feel more playful, particularly when it becomes clear that many of them employ the existing words or imagery of the films they held. You can almost play a game of ‘what film was it?’ as you look at the assortment of textures, layers, and shapes that feel like O’Rourke’s very own lexicon of symbols and subjects.

Not all artists love comparisons, but it must be said that the works in Coming Soon seem strongly connected to the paintings of the late genius David Lynch – weird, experimental and not waiting to be explained – so you simply take what you can from the brilliant encounter.