Press

The idea of artists blending references to high and low culture is far from new. But often, arch mixing of the refined and the crass falls flat; it’s as if the entire trick is in presenting the viewer with a ready-made excuse for a postmodern wink, rather than attempting to create meaning from strange collisions.

Glasgow educated and based Alan Michaels does mix pop culture with more intellectual pursuits, but he does it with a sly cleverness that avoids the pitfalls of smug knowingness. The works in Touch Void include screen prints, abstract geometric paintings, photorealist works and colourful text pieces.

An upstairs room off the gallery’s main space shows The Mother And The Whore, a film by one of Michael’s inspirations, Jean Eustace.

Touch Void, Touched Void and Void Touch are all explorations of abstract colour that have a slight malevolence to them. The simpler, less fussy works present you with statements that have a kind of banal yet weird charm: ‘it’s a British Sound,’ says one; ‘its Positive’ says another. In other hands, these might fall flat, but Michael’s subtlety breaths a fresh vitality into them.