From Pieter Bruegel the Elder to David Fincher, artistic depictions of the Seven Deadly Sins have tended towards the grotesque. It’s a way to visually express their severity, and more specifically in a Catholic setting, scare you straight. ‘See this? This is what awaits you if you sin!’

Chris Ofili has taken a different approach, painting incredibly luscious and inviting works that light a fire inside me and make me want to dive inside them. The only sexy temptation that Sunday School ever showed me was a shiny red apple. But even the Archbishop would agree that Ofili’s works would likely bring a lot more people to the pews.

The gallery write-up states these “works offer an expansive meditation on sin and the complex experience of sinfulness.” Yet despite Ofili’s Roman Catholic upbringing and colours so vibrant they’ll remind you of stained glass on a sunny day, these are not traditional religious cautionary imagery. In fact, if you’d walked in not knowing anything about the show, you’d likely think these were otherworldly fantasies.

Everything appears to float and flow every which way. There’s many indications that make me think the paintings might not have a right way up. Maybe these are set underwater? Colourful dots act like phosphorescence obscuring your views. Fairies and flowers blend seamlessly. If this is sin, sign me up. Which is the message traditional Biblical stories always sought to impart. Sin IS sexy. It’s alluring and enticing and goes out of its way to distract you from the aftermath that is most certainly coming. Except Ofili has omitted any indication of the hangover.

The seven large works are enormous. Giant 2 x 3 metre canvasses. Filled with so much layering of detail it’s almost impossible to comprehend what’s happening. I frequently step too close, blocking the view of others, so that the edges exceed my peripheral vision and make me think I have indeed been enveloped. I make out horned heads and flowers that grow from botox-rich lips. I’m distracted by the impasto and supple shapes, and am none the wiser about the dangers depicted. The titles are no help.

The Harvester. The Pink Waterfall. The Swing. That last one might depict Lust, but so might all the others that are filled with intertwined figures. The intention was never to paint one work per sin, but to “encompass a spectrum of excessive and transgressive behaviours”. That ambiguous sensuality, so colourfully painted, makes it’s easy to imagine posters of these becoming a dorm room staple.