The galleries: The art of painting by numbers

Moly by Max Gimblett on show at Gow Langsford Gallery.

Our days are ruled by numbers and both their practicality and their magic can be the substance of art. Numbers and nuance are the key words for this week's exhibitions. Numbers feature in several exhibitions but most notably in MGM at the Gow Langsford Gallery until July 30.

The show is a contrast between a journey with numbers and figures as moments. The journey is a big, continuous painting by Colin McCahon (the first M) done as a series of panels featuring 1 to 14 like the Stations of the Cross. It is a dark journey. An arrow in the first panel directs the viewer on their way and the numbers darken as the road at the bottom of the panels narrows.

There is an abrupt change to the progress on the journey as the numbers change to written letters. At the end the numbers lighten and the traveller emerges into the light.

What is special about the panels is the top area, where by spontaneous manipulation of cloudy, very liquid pigment, the artist suggests a variety of moods, like changes of weather reflected in the sky. It is a remarkable example of how inventive McCahon was as a painter, as well as a great maker of symbolic landscapes.

The other M in the show is the famous American painter and theorist Robert Motherwell (1915-91), represented by two works on paper - one a signature M and the other the number 4 painted with a flourish so it stands with a solid upright and a cantilevered triangle that flies like a flag. The figure is done with the sort of quick, splashing action that confers the impression of great energy. The emphasis here is on a moment of action that is fixed as a symbol.

Flourishes of brushstroke are part of the art of Max Gimblett who appears here as the G in the middle. His work is planned as both a synthesis and a commentary on the work of the older artists.

There is a series of numbers 0-10 each accomplished on fine paper with usually a single brushstroke to characterise each number. Zero establishes the brushstroke as energy turning on itself; 1 is a positive down stroke; 6 a composition of delicious rhythmic curves; 5 an oddly cranky, irritated thing. Other numbers are less effective: 8 and 9 are weak and 3 is a limping image but there is a fine completion in 10. The characterisation may sometimes be questionable but the force is undeniable.

It is the same force that is manifested in Gimblett's big paintings of which there is a fine, fountaining example, Moly.

The use of numbers for symbolic as well as decorative purposes is also found in Numbered Days, by Dylan Lind, a young painter who is having his first exhibition at Oedipus Rex Gallery (until July 15).

The numbers in his works are linked to people and invoke the way Lotto numbers, notes about medication, phone numbers, dates of birth and death are an integral part of life, particularly the life of his grandfather. But old men forget and part of these paintings suggests the erosion of memory of the loss of numbers that were once so important.

The personal nature of the numbers is made explicit in Panadol Time, which also contains references to Lotto and Strike, but the process becomes more oblique and more richly effective by virtue of nuance and suggestion in the tight grids and vivid underpainting of Curtains and the ghosts of early numbers scrubbed and eroded in 90-94 Not Out.

The size and authority of these paintings and the confident handling of paint as well their powerful suggestion make this a notable debut exhibition.

Even more nuanced and subtle are the constructions of Kazu Nakagawa at Bath Street Gallery in Parnell. The subtlety of these works lies not in their composition, which is simple and severe, but in their silky surface. The outlines of the images are inscribed into the boards which are the vehicle for the work, but the surface itself is given life by mysterious processes of resist techniques, sanding and staining. The result is a delicate surface, retrained, almost monocoloured but richly varied despite the restraint. In like the word balloon the unmistakable balloon shapes hover as pattern except for one which thrusts forward as in a dream. The works are often divided vertically and the polarity as in the poised but divided like the word circle makes for a wonderfully elegant image.

Richest and most elegant of all is like the word flower where the looped and rhythmic petal shapes are not one flower but all flowers.

These precious objects are beautifully made and reflect the artist's skills as a craftsman. But they go beyond the utilitarian basis of his splendid furniture and have the range of suggestion allied to the monumental quality of art.