Inventive spirit expressed in ample measure

In Places and Memories, Cristina Popovici shows her adroit handling of paint.

The legacy of the past century is still with us. One bequest is Action Painting, or - as a rose by another name - Abstract Expressionism, a style which is not entirely exhausted.

This is amply demonstrated by the lively exhibition by Romanian-born New Zealand painter Christina Popovici, who has an exhibition at the Studio of Contemporary Art in France St until June 23.

The paintings are on a large scale that suits the sweeping gestures in bright colour that give them their characteristic feeling of improvisation. As in the work of their remote ancestor, Van Gogh, the apparent spontaneity is the result of deep consideration.

There is a hint of subject matter here suggested by titles such as Genesis of the Place and The Gothic Gate and the show's title of Places and Memories, but the main feature that involves the viewer is participation in the application of the paint and in the artist's decisions about it.

That does not mean that anyone could replicate the works. The artist's invention of painterly effects is remarkable and her ability to handle paint in a variety of ways with brushing, carding and rubbing combined with collage, resist work and dripping and splashing, is exceptionally skilful. Yet we can feel and admire how she gets her effects.

A typical work is Circles of Light, which is dominated by a great arcing sweep of white. Behind the white is a mass of intricate and complex forms. They do not have the overall lyrical rhythms of a work by Jackson Pollock - the granddaddy of such work - but they share with him the absence of any focal point and centre to the composition. The result is a powerful density of effect where no part of the work is subordinate. The painting is a strenuously worked overall surface.

What brings the work into this century is a hint of a profile face in the top left corner. This sets up all the abstract commotion of colour and gesture behind the face which once would have been sufficient in itself to be read as thoughts, emotions and confusions of an individual, thereby emphasising the possibility of reading the forms as metaphor.

Text is used in some paintings, not just as decorative element but also to add to the tone of the work. The text cannot be read but since it is obviously Latin this gives a hint of history, religion and prayer. At other times there are isolated Gothic letters to emphasis this sense of history.

It is most noticeable in two paintings that come closest to direct representation - Octavian and Eleanora both make legendary figures from Romania's past monumental. They make a contribution to a spectacular exhibition that is much more varied in effect than first appears and one that shows the artist's work is continuously developing.

Paradoxically, an even more modern approach indicates a return to representation in what is only the second exhibition by the young artist Ewan Cameron, at the McPherson Gallery until June 24.

Like Popovici, there is a feeling of density and an overall effect of no focus of composition.

His work really comes out of abstract expressionism since it emphasises an abstract reading within a forthright and realistic transcription of nature.

Instead of a rhythmic tangle of abstract lines he paints a congested pattern of tree branches in a big work such as Tangle. This work - as is often the case with Abstract Expressionism - suggests a boundless field beyond the pictorial space.

The subjects are taken from close to home. The artist grew up near forests of pine and other exotics so this is not the dark masses of the native bush but the sparse lines of deciduous trees.

The effect works best on a large scale. A small conventional work, such as Leaf Litter, is appealing, especially in its colour, but the larger works - such as Red Forest and Trunk Line are more impressive in size and complexity.

There is scope for more intensity within Cameron's style but he has found a way to express his feelings in a highly individual and adventurous way.

Another modern strategy is to abandon the traditional skills of representation in favour of the effect of the appealing naivete that comes from folk-craft done without the art-school skills of drawing and perspective.

There are two such exhibitions this week that follow this style. At the Milford Gallery, Megan Campbell, whose exhibition Patina runs to July 1, does not have conventional skills but creates a special density of effect in the way she loads her work with detail, mostly seen front-on as if embroidered. The folk-art element is emphasised by some paintings on dinner plates.

She paints dark gardens with a hint of nightmare - the people in them are very tense and some of the shadowy, carefully tended areas are inhabited by ghosts.

At FhE G2 Gallery until July 1, Marissa Bradley shows by her sophisticated work in glass that she is consciously denying her considerable skills to create the naive, dreamlike effect of her charming paintings. These are done on recycled rimu panels to emphasise the folk-art effect.

Dreams of horses are supposed to produce nightmares, but her Pony Tales is a self-consciously innocent image of a long narrow bed, complete with horse, where a girl might dream of ponies. It is typical of an exhibition of considerable charm and special invention.