Alan Michael: Touch Void

Painting's relevance to contemporary art is often questioned. For Michael, such questions remain unaddressed, perhaps ignored as irrelevancies. To him, painting is completely necessary. His process is important and complex: he repeats and layers imagery through screen printing and oil and canvas in a method reminiscent of the works of Callum Innes and Michael Craik recently exhibited in Edinburgh. But Michael is not all and only process - he brings us back to the subject, context and influences directing his painting. Current cultural icons are a starting point for the majority of the text works. In the 'Mini' canvases, the word/image is taken from the new BMW Mini slogan. He's making a very direct connection with Pop artists, particularly Warhol and Rauschenberg, but this isn't pure appropriation: it feels more like the act of remembering these artists and linking their concerns with commercialism today. To complement the painted works he has chosen to screen Jean Eustache's film 'The Mother and the Whore', which along with Jean Luc Godard's work reportedly 'gets him in the mood' for painting. Watching the film, with its snapshots of atmospheric interiors and musings on café objects, draws obvious comparisons with the paintings, signalling the appropriacy of this supplementary material. Other stimulus is included on 'The Table' and reveals the great level of variety within this painter's oeuvre. In all, a very clever show providing many fascinating insights into the artist's head. [Lucy Gallwey]