Black and White

THIS exhibition is recruited from members of the Black Church Print Studios, and the theme (thematic exhibitions are very popular…

THIS exhibition is recruited from members of the Black Church Print Studios, and the theme (thematic exhibitions are very popular at the moment) was "designed to liberate and challenge each artist". And so it might have done with some of them, but I wonder if it was not a constricting influence on others. Certainly, by opting only for works in black white and grey, the exhibition organisers have given it, almost unavoidably, a certain overall mono chrome character.

Michael Coleman's large Black Church, for instance, confronts you with a certain head on energy, but the idea - a kind of Barnett Newman like fissure from top to bottom - might have worked better in colour. Cora Cummins, in her two etchings, uses a generalised landscape theme, and does so with a kind of Expressionist force and simplicity backed by technical subtlety.

Margaret Irvin's tall, narrow etchings confront the Finnish landscape, its forests in particular, with an almost Art Nouveau format but with a real sense of emotional involvement.

Louise Peat uses figurative themes with force and some mystery, if not with obvious originality. Rather too many of the other exhibits, however, fail to get beyond that over familiar territory, the well made print. Technical expertise is plain throughout, but too often without an equivalent sense of having something real or urgent to say.