Gwen O'Dowd

THIS EXHIBITION is entitled Uaimh - a word which, Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith says in his catalogue introduction, "can mean a cave or underground chamber, a cellar, crypt or vault; a den or a pit."

Gwen O'Dowd's paintings exercise virtually all of these meanings, without being tied down specifically to a single one.

Compared with her recent Grand Canyon series, which were broad and panoramic, almost scenic, these works are in close up.

In some, the imagery suggests the entrance to a Newgrange type prehistoric underground chamber; in others, it suggests a grave or pit, in others again, a cutting or semi subterranean stream.

None of these possible interpretations is spelled out, however; the treatment is weighty, impassive and slightly mysterious.

This mood is heightened by a kind of chiaroscuro contrasting luminous areas with pools and slits of opaque shadow.

As usual with this painter, the surfaces are heavily worked texture has always been one of her preoccupations, taken at times to the point where it threatened to take over on its own.

Some of the rocky passages, in particular, are textured so strongly and ruggedly that they stand out almost like reliefs, while the colours have the muffled, deep, almost dusty glow we have come to associate with her.

In the Grand Canyon series, I was worried by an obvious, picturesque element, which coarsened or conventionalised the vision at certain times.

That objection does not apply to the present exhibition, in which the forms have more weight, mystery and concentration in themselves and often reach out almost into abstraction.

This is even more obvious in "the small works on paper, which condense the same images further and virtually become abstract images in their own right, without any loss of power or immediacy.