PERIODICALLY the OPW showcases art works it has purchased for various public buildings around the country, exhibiting them under the banner Art of the State. The theme for this, the sixth such event, has focused upon paintings by emerging Irish, or, Irish based artists. Although spread out over more than five years, the acquisitions display strong links in terms of style and content - a feature shaped as much by the consideration invested in placing a painting in a suitable space, as recognising its original merit.

The main thrust in this strong selection is for varying forms of abstraction, with a scattering of figurative or vaguely symbolic images also in evidence. Perhaps the most powerful painting is Frame by Simon Reilly. In this large canvas, a mysterious mutable object carved into a thick impasto, floats above what may or may not be a seascape. The painting is at once substantial yet vacuous - a triumph of ambiguity. Comparable in terms of scale, Catherine Kenny's contribution is nicely understated, using dry materials mixed with resins and wax to give a stonelike finish to the canvas. Deirdre O'Mahony's sensuous offering stakes' a claim in territory similar to Michael Mulcahy's Do Gong series.

Diana Copperwhite and Sarah Iremonger approach abstraction from different perspectives, the former using paint with such fluid spontaneity that the colour relationships almost appear to be arrived at through impulsive intuition. Iremonger, on the other hand, paints a flat, hard edge structure with a deep subcutaneous luminosity. Aoife Harrington employs a beautiful scumbling effect in Three Vessels, while T. J. Maher's untitled abstract is bathed in an iridescent blue which masks a plaster ground and broken support underneath. Finally, the success of Mark Joyce's Lift owes something to a childishly drawn aeroplane - a good foil for the serious mood set by the abstract works.