TJ McNamara on art: Threads of rich emotion

Smoking Tom Ford #1. Photo / Matt Ellwood.

Brushstrokes intertwine like a conversation with the artist

The dexterity of an artist's technique means the viewer can often be involved in the action of the moving hand as well as the unspoken thoughts that might underlie a painting.

This is the special element of the work by Kathy Barber at Orexart, called Undercurrent. It is characterised by a multitude of woven brushstrokes against a variety of deeply coloured backgrounds. The strokes are as complex as intricate knots as they cross each other and twine in and out like a conversation. The effect is intensified by the way the complicated patterns appear to have a remote origin in lettering.

The colour of the background and the density of these strokes give an individual poetic character to each work. A piece such as Halcyon, with a distinct horizon, suggests rich growth against land and sky. A higher horizon in Flume makes the strokes tumble downwards in a cascade. Exhale is breezy and Rift crams the forms between two solid cliffs.

Two studies for Rift, where the forms are close to lettering, confirm the concept of unspoken conversation. Because of the moods of sky and storm created by the atmospheric backgrounds, Barber must have been tempted to add touches of realistic elements. In Float she has yielded to the temptation and added three white birds like free spirits arising out of the tangle of thought. It makes an exceptional piece in a mature, polished and unusual exhibition.

In New Work at Sanderson's Newmarket Gallery, Cruz Jimenez works in a similar manner of involving the spectator in the act of painting by following the artist's hand. He also has works where recognisable natural forms are sometimes part of the composition. In a large painting called Rose, flowers weep a fall of tears in a dense darkness.

A different mood is evoked by Song in the Wilderness where the foreground is filled with wildflowers in white and yellow below a burst of light. It hovers on the edge of obvious sentiment but still has considerable charm.

Such glowing bursts of light are part of his imagery but not all are so warmly lyrical. Study is a dark explosion. In The Soul's Procession a ghostly white shape built up of heavy strokes floats in a dark sea under richly painted sky with Jimenez's characteristic bubble-like forms arising and drifting away from it. It is close to abstraction but an emotionally impressive painting.

Going deep into the dark is part of the emotional impact of a large painting such as Como Me Hiere (How it Hurts), a tunnel into gloom. On the whole the celebratory works are more successful, notably Christmas Eve At Grandma Helen's with a moon and dashing brushwork of colour.

Several sculptures sit on the floor under glass but these are more difficult to follow than the paintings, which collectively carry considerable emotional weight.

The charcoal drawings that make up part of the first solo exhibition by Matt Ellwood at Melanie Roger Gallery have a brilliant but brittle impact. The whole show is a satirical comment on the design style of Tom Ford, the American who worked for Gucci and subsequently set up his own brand. He is famous and influential as the epitome of "cool". The satire is subtle and easily confounded with celebration.

Ellwood has taken images from ads for Tom Ford eyewear and made exact replicas of the images as charcoal drawings. The skill of the drawing is amazing, with a range of tone from the deepest black through subtle gradations of grey in the shading.

The detail of shiny surfaces loved by the designer in such things as leather jackets is striking as is the totally convincing hairstyles: wild with the women and smoothly brilliantined with the men. The impact of black shapes made by the costumes and the poses is extraordinarily inventive, emphasising the erotic appeal of beautiful young people. The nature of charcoal drawing is emphasised by the smudges on the side where there is also a fine grid, which may be part of the copying process. All this is obliquely at the service of an anti-smoking campaign.

The show is called Il Fumo Tom Ford and each of the images carry an anti-smoking slogan in a variety of languages.

The theme of smoking is carried further in a group of relief sculptures of cigarette packets reproduced as small, elegant blocks of plywood mounted on a narrow board. Also on display is a large dividing screen making an angular, rhythmic design play with the trademark initials TF matched by a floor-to-ceiling pillar with the same motif. Both lack the fertile ambiguity of the works on the walls.

The show is a paean of praise for the designer, but it is surprisingly ambiguous in attitude and raises subtly ironic questions about fashion, smoking and worldwide trademarks.

At the galleries
What: Undercurrent by Kathy Barber
Where and when: Orexart, 15 Putiki St, Arch Hill, to September 13

TJ says: The maturing of the artist's characteristic style of intertwining forms in front of rich backgrounds in a number of moods.

What: New Work by Cruz Jimenez

Where and when: Sanderson Contemporary Art, Osborne Lane, Newmarket, to September 7

TJ says: Moody visions of strange forms, sometimes against celebratory bright colour or a rich darkness, skilfully painted.

What: Il Fumo Tom Ford by Matt Ellwood
Where and when: Melanie Roger Gallery, 226 Jervois Rd, Herne Bay, to September 20

TJ says: Stylish charcoal drawings and designer woodware making play on the famous work and trademarks of designer Tom Ford, curiously linked to anti-smoking.