Visual cries and whispers

Christmas is close, and there is an abundance of lively activity in the art scene. There is also the clamour of many different voices.

The loudest is the Brechtian shout of Peter Robinson's Joytwotimesex at the Anna Bibby Gallery until Thursday. Brechtian because not only is the artist resident in Germany and there are bits of German in the show, but because it is strenuously liberal and anti-American. The messages lettered on the paintings are concerned with social and political problems.

These are noisy, jazzy paintings and, as in Brecht, there are terrible contradictions. The artist shouts in one painting that "Art sucks" yet he adheres to the rituals of art and selling.

His paintings or, more properly, his posters, are in a dealer gallery. They are expensively for sale. The world he attacks is expected to buy his rebellion.

Robinson has enormous technical competence and invention at his command when he chooses to use it. Some of the paintings are junk - too conceptual, too gestural to have more than passing interest. Axis of Evil is just one such work.

Others show an extraordinary power in the use of paint, especially as black and white. The Face refers to the origins of humans in Africa. The skull at the centre of the work is superbly painted, suggesting fossilised bone and eons of time. Marriage Vows with its stripper and Camp ... Xray have equal feats of drawing and painting.

There is a contradiction in our response as well as in the painting. Can we admire the skill and ignore the simplistic message which condemns us?

Across the road at Whitespace an exhibition (until Thursday) by Neville Smitheram which has a quiet voice. This is delicate chamber music, gentle nuances of abstract shape and colour. Each work offers a delicate sensation poised between balance and tension.

A bigger orchestra is at work in the show by Caroline Rothwell at the Sue Crockford Gallery, until December 7. This work is like the music of Vaughan Williams. The sculptures are The Lark Ascending and the paintings are like big, pastoral symphonies.

The fascinating sculptures are birds in groups of three, rhythmically arranged to emphasise characteristic wings or beak. The process of their making is remarkable. They are heavy works that have been moulded within some sort of nylon cover.

The stitching of the nylon is apparent on the finished piece and emphasises the fluid nature of the making of the work, which ends up still, white and marble-like.

The process of making is intriguing in the wall works, too, which are done in ribbons of colour on tall, clear sheets of PVC.

The four works are all called Weed and are based on common English weeds. They achieve a strong presence that comes from the lively movement within their shapes and the straggling suggestions of roots at the bottom of each. It is a show of skill and authority.

At Artspace is art with a still, quiet voice. It is almost silent. Perhaps it sings the blues. Love in the Shadows is by Michael Harrison and runs until December 19.

The multitude of images in this show are all small. None shouts a message. They are all done with soft, often monochrome, water-colour, predominantly melancholy blue. All are dreamlike, yet have an unexpected, soulful power.

Few of the images in the show have been seen. Many come from a number of private collections and the variety of owners suggest how personal and precious the works have become.

They are very intimate and you must get close to the work. Many of the details hint at other painters from Old Masters to Symbolists, like Fernand Khnopff, moderns, particularly Balthus, and local artists like Jeffrey Harris. There are sometimes paintings within the paintings and these are McCahons. In the curious You and Me, McCahon's epic lettering of I and Thou is interlaced with a young couple.

Relationships between couples are delicately evoked in many paintings by imagery as simple as Adam and Eve.

Yet there is far more to these works than their apparent simplicity. Myth and legend are evoked, as well as present circumstance and implied violence.

Many of the paintings are of cats exactly observed and drawn. Some dream of birds. You can see their obsessions in their heads.

This touching and resonant show is a source of delight in dreams, art, people, animals and erotic relationships.