Last updated: 27 April 2026
By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture
This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice.
Cool Factor
★★☆☆☆
2 out of 5 · Lukewarm
Amalia Pica: Daisy Chain arrives at Herald St as the Argentine-British artist's fourth solo show with the Bethnal Green gallery. On paper, it sounds genuinely promising. Community, memory, coded language, and a monumental installation of interconnected watercolour paintings winding around the main space. In practice, though, the Amalia Pica Daisy Chain exhibition is a quietly pretty experience that leans more heavily on sentiment than on substance.
What's on?
Running until 16 May 2026 at Herald St's Bethnal Green space, Daisy Chain brings together painting, found objects, and video. The centrepiece is a series of pencil and watercolour works on wood, depicting daisy chains at various scales, which snake around the gallery walls in a single interconnected installation. The show builds on Pica's earlier project at Cample Line in Scotland, where she invited local schoolchildren, community members, and gallery staff to press and paste a 50-metre physical daisy chain onto the walls together. That collaborative gesture has been translated here into painted form. The exhibition is also accompanied by a newly commissioned critical text, Amalia Pica: Keepsake, by academic Alejandra Aguado.
First impressions
Walking into Herald St, the immediate effect is undeniably appealing. The paintings are delicate, precisely rendered, and arranged with real care. There is a satisfying visual rhythm as the painted chains move around the room, linking one canvas to the next. The space feels considered and the works are technically accomplished. So far, so good.
The concept is also clear from the outset. Pica has long been interested in informal, unofficial forms of communication: the shared rituals and gestures that exist outside institutional structures. Daisy chains, as a childhood activity, sit squarely within that territory. Furthermore, the installation photographs beautifully, and the gallery presents it with a clean confidence that suits the work.
The experience
Here is where things get a little complicated. The paintings are lovely to look at, but they feel more illustrative than exploratory. They reproduce the idea of a daisy chain faithfully and with evident skill. Yet they do not quite push beyond that starting point. What you see is, essentially, exactly what you get.
Pica's best work tends to carry a productive tension. Earlier pieces involving bureaucratic language, coded signals, and collective action have had that quality in abundance. Daisy Chain, however, feels more resolved, perhaps a little too quickly. The sentiment of community, memory, and childhood joy comes through loudly. But the ambiguity that makes conceptual work genuinely interesting is, for the most part, absent here.
A found Victorian painting, spotted at a Dalston car boot sale and depicting Argentina's newspaper La Nación alongside a bouquet of daisies, is presented as a kind of origin point for the show. It is a charming detail and the story behind it is touching. Still, it anchors the exhibition in nostalgia rather than complicating it. The result is a show that feels more like an illustration of an idea than a real investigation of one.
The video element and found objects add some textural variety, but they do not fundamentally shift the register. Everything in the Amalia Pica Daisy Chain show is warm, resolved, and visually coherent. That is not nothing. However, if you arrive hoping for something that will unsettle or challenge, you may leave a little underwhelmed.
For those interested in other art that wrestles more actively with conceptual territory, our review of the Christine Kozlov show at Raven Row is worth a read.
Value for money
Entry to Herald St is free, as with most commercial galleries in London, so there is nothing to lose by visiting. The gallery is also a short walk from Bethnal Green Tube station and pairs well with other nearby spaces. As a result, if you are already heading east on a Saturday afternoon, this makes a pleasant addition to a gallery loop. Just do not expect it to be the standout of your day.
The verdict
Cool Factor
★★☆☆☆
2 out of 5 · Lukewarm
Amalia Pica: Daisy Chain is a well-crafted, visually appealing show that does exactly what it sets out to do. The paintings are pretty, the installation has a genuine spatial presence, and the themes of community and childhood memory are handled with evident care. Nevertheless, the Amalia Pica Daisy Chain exhibition never quite moves beyond the decorative and the sentimental. For those already familiar with Pica's practice, it may feel like a slight step back. For newcomers, it offers a gentle introduction, but probably not her most compelling entry point.
Overall, a 2 out of 5 Lukewarm. The show earns that score through technically accomplished painting and a coherent, well-considered use of the gallery space. What held it back from a higher rating was the absence of the conceptual tension that defines Pica's more memorable work. Pretty, yes. Memorable, not quite.
FAQs
Where is Amalia Pica: Daisy Chain?
The exhibition is at Herald St, 2 Herald St, Bethnal Green, London, E2 6JT. The nearest Tube station is Bethnal Green on the Central line.
When does Amalia Pica: Daisy Chain close?
The show runs until 16 May 2026. Entry is free.
What kind of work is in the exhibition?
Daisy Chain brings together pencil and watercolour paintings on wood, found objects, and video. The centrepiece is a large-scale installation of interconnected painted daisy chains arranged around the gallery walls.
Is Amalia Pica: Daisy Chain worth visiting?
If you are nearby or combining it with other east London gallery visits, it is worth a look. The paintings are lovely and the space is well laid out. However, if you are travelling specifically for the Amalia Pica Daisy Chain show, you may find it does not quite justify the journey on its own.
Who is Amalia Pica?
Amalia Pica is an Argentine-British artist based in London, represented by Herald St since the mid-2000s. She is known for work that explores collective experience, communication, and the social function of objects and shared gestures. She has shown internationally at major institutions and is one of the more distinctive voices in British contemporary art.
You might also like
- Rose Wylie at the Royal Academy: our review — another London exhibition worth your time, from an artist who never plays it safe.
- Conceptual art at Raven Row: Christine Kozlov reviewed — if you want work with a harder conceptual edge, start here.
- The National Art Pass: is it worth it? — cut the cost of gallery visits across the UK with this one card.
- Great Women Artists — a brilliant book for anyone who wants to go deeper into the artists shaping contemporary culture.
- Gifts for artists and creatives — our curated picks for the creative people in your life.
- Last-minute Father’s Day gifts, sorted in under 24 hours.
Father's Day2026 Edit Last-minute Father's Day gifts, sorted in under 24 hours. Last updated: 2 June 2026 By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance Some links in this guide are affiliate or referral links. This costs you nothing extra and helps support the site. Father's Day is 21 June Every gift below: sorted in… Read more: Last-minute Father’s Day gifts, sorted in under 24 hours. - Mobbin New Apps (June 2026): Lumy, Hype and AI RefreshesLast updated: 1 June 2026 By Stiv · Design, technology and personal finance Tracking Mobbin new apps each month remains one of the quickest ways to see where real product design is actually heading, without trawling the App Store for sport. June's batch is a treat, too. Lumy turns the sunrise into something close to… Read more: Mobbin New Apps (June 2026): Lumy, Hype and AI Refreshes
- Flare-Up Goldsmiths CCA Review: London’s First Crip Art SurveyLast updated: 31 May 2026 By Tristan · Arts, exhibitions and creative culture This is an opinion piece. Views expressed are the author's own and do not constitute professional advice. Cool Factor: 5/5 I went to Flare-Up at Goldsmiths CCA on a hot day in late May, and I left certain it is one of… Read more: Flare-Up Goldsmiths CCA Review: London’s First Crip Art Survey
No Comments.