The Irish Times 14.06.06

Aidan Dunne

“Desmond Shortt, known for paintings in which playful, kitsch fantasies are allowed free reign, becomes more pointedly satirical in his latest, and perhaps best, body of work to date.

He is not the only artist in the show to note that the Utopian aspects of the United States are, to say the least, problematic, but the subject turns out to be particularly well suited to his brand of wild, eroticized imagery.

Nor is he simply indulging in the popular pursuit of America-bashing. Rather his paintings push to extremes the fantasy worlds entailed by various forms of fundamentalist belief.

The humour is broad, even crude, yet it works, and very well.”