The galleries: Surrealist visions of the human and mechanical

Catcher, by Richard Killeen, is a playful image with a three-dimensional aspect.

The K Rd art precinct has been extended by galleries to the south across the motorway. Most of what is offered in this wider purlieu is the work of established artists.

At the Ivan Anthony Gallery until June 17 is Catcher, a series of prints by Richard Killeen. At this stage in his career he is drawing on a huge library of images, perspectives, and patterned effects. He takes images stored in his computer and combines them in prints of amazing complexity.

They are surrealist visions of intersections between human and mechanical set in varied spaces.

These visions are printed on archival photo paper as unique copies. The best have solemn, idol-like figures who, although mechanical, also speak of ritual and worship. Each has its own atmosphere. Catcher, which gives its name to the show, is playful. An animated device on wheels endeavours to catch a bright wooden bug to include in its own grey wooden world.

You can make what metaphorical meaning you like from it, but you must admire the technique of the shadows and thicknessing that impart its three-dimensional reality.

Other figures are much more solemn. The work called Spanner, with a decorative border made up of tools - the borders are an extraordinary part of these images - stands tall as an idol which is mechanical yet oddly human. There is a different feel to Labyrinth, which has a Kafka-like succession of doors each leading deeper into an unknown series of spaces. The immediate foreground is occupied by small figures like Daleks.

On the wall are the labyrinth symbols that Killeen has often used in the past. It is one of many instances where he has used material that refers to his earliest work. This gives distinction to such pieces as Temple Fish, Night Farmer, and the fascinating Great Hall of Jar.

The show is difficult to interpret, but amazing in its invention and variety of effect.

Further along K Rd at the Michael Lett Gallery until July is a work by Billy Apple. Like most of his works, it is collaborative. His collaborator here is Ryan Moore, and they have created a large work that is not only in the gallery but also of the gallery. It is a painted plan of the gallery floor exactly one-third the size of the area portrayed.

It looks like a vast minimal abstract painting of considerable presence. It's so plain that at first it is unconvincing, but inevitably the depth of the black, the precision of the painting of the edges, and the detail become fascinating.

The wall that divides the gallery becomes a narrow fall of light that unmistakably suggests McCahon. A tiny circle, which adds a grace note to the black mass, is delightful when traced to a pillar near the door. Audacity of concept has paid off.

The Studio of Contemporary Art, now in a fine new gallery in France St, is showing Interior Landscapes by Barry Ross Smith until June 9. His work is Peter McIntyre reincarnated with a hint of metaphor implied in the title Interior.

He paints the New Zealand rural scene in a way that is picturesque but not without observation and truth. He certainly appeals to something deep in the New Zealand psyche, and is in love with corrugated iron and ruined weatherboard houses. One of the best works gives its name to the show. Interior Landscape shows an iron shed containing a huge World War II American truck painted in a way that makes it a huge rusting monster. Beyond the dark shed, mountains are visible through a broken window.

This work, and another called The Shepherd, achieve a certain ionic quality. The Shepherd, showing a man carrying a sheep across his broad shoulders, is reminiscent of ancient Greek sculpture and of Picasso. It is given local piquancy by the indispensable sheath-knife at the farmer's belt that hints that the sheep is destined to be dog tucker.

Away from the rural scene, paintings of people at the beach - with swirling foam making Maori patterns at their feet - are more explicit about layers of meaning but less successful in stimulating the imagination.

Further up the hill, the Jensen Gallery is showing the local and international abstract art in which it specialises.

Randolph St already contains the Whitecliffe School Gallery. Now there is another forum, the Roger Williams Contemporary Gallery, showing Judy Darragh with pieces from her exhibition at Te Papa that add variety to the new location.