So bad it can't be good

This is Stella Vine's first exhibition since being singled out for publicity over her paintings of dead schoolgirl Rachel Whitear and Princess Diana.

The press release reminds us that, amid all the attention, the main point, which is the work, got lost. So it is on her work that we'll concentrate here.

Vine paints in a sloppy, faux naive, expressionist style, in a manner that was recently fashionable as 'bad' painting. Sometimes this 'bad' painting could be quite good, scrutinising the comic essence of a thing, such as in the work of Martin Maloney.

But not all Vine's subjects lend themselves so easily to the comic, so it's really not much of a surprise that her work drew the adverse attention it did. She is obviously drawn to icons of female suffering.

Rachel greets us again at the start of this show, this time in an image taken from the disturbing forensic photo that was released by her parents. Another work is painted on a cooker, along with some lines from Sylvia Plath's poem Lady Lazarus. The manner of Plath's death has done the myth-making rounds for so long (thereby squeezing its pathos dry) that this is quite funny, in an obviously macabre way.

The question is, is Vine a bad 'bad' painter or a good 'bad' painter? In their ineptitude and downright tattiness, there's a detectable strain of vulnerability (they all sort of look alike, too, as if Vine simply paints versions of herself). But there is nothing beyond this that is incisive or substantial.

Until Jul 4, Transition, 110a Lauriston Road E9, Thu to Sat 1pm to 6pm, free. Tel: 020 8533 7843.Tube: Mile End

Prozac And Private Views: Stella Vine