ABJAD

Ingleby Gallery

15 Calton Road

Edinburgh

0131 556 4441

www.inglebygallery.com

Until March 21

Mon-Sat, 10am-6pm. By appointment at any other time

ABJAD is the intriguing name for this latest show of abstract works from the Ingleby Gallery. With a title referencing the writing system in which every letter describes a consonant and the reader is required to fill in the vowels, this is a group show of abstract works - the artist creates the imagery, the viewer fills in their own meaning, you could say - from four artists that gallery director Richard Ingleby has been wanting to show for some time.

The starting point, he tells me, was Kevin Harman's vibrant double-glazed paintings, created quite literally from double glazing units into which paint was dripped and tipped. Colour is king in Harman's saturated works, which have a glossy opacity that sits in interesting juxtaposition to the transparent ideal of a window.

In Gallery II, Jane Bustin's multi-material work is more subdued, tonally, while intense colour rebounds in Jeff McMillan's ink-saturated found geometrical drawings, and the glossy paint layers of his built-up Offside Paintings. There is geometry too in Paul Keir's triangle-printed plywood-based acrylics (the soft mustard and cream repeating pattern reminiscent of textile work) and his discreet geometric diptychs. On the corner wall, Keir has completed a delicate ink painting, a purple trapezoid of fine lines. Ingleby tells me he was delighted he managed to persuade Keir to paint one on the gallery wall.

"He normally paints them in his studio and invites me round just before he paints over them," says the gallery director. "It's nice to get one here for a few more people to see."

Sarah Urwin Jones