Passage

Taylor Galleries, 16 Kildare St, Dublin Mon-Fri 10am- 5.30pm, Sat 11am-3pm Until Nov 11 01-6766642

Japanese artist Makiko Nakamura, who has been based in Ireland since 1999, is a fine abstract painter who makes beautiful, grid-based, usually monochromatic compositions. These are built up incrementally over a long time through a process of addition and subtraction.

The end result in each case is a complex, honed surface that can look impassive at first glance, but slowly and subtly yields glimpses of myriad layers of underlying paint. We gain a sense of the time and prolonged, careful attention that each work represents, as the geometric structure of the grid combines with the organic unpredictability of erasure.

Interestingly, Nakamura is originally from Gifu city, “the papermaking centre of Japan”, and studied in Kyoto. She worked as a film editor before turning full time to painting. She came to Ireland because of her interest in the writings of Samuel Beckett, and one can see how his concentration on pared-down essentials would appeal to her sensibility. Beckett was also the reason she had travelled to live in Paris, in 1996. She also enjoyed a spell working in Philadelphia.

Since settling in Ireland, Nakamura has shown widely throughout the island, south and north.

Can’t See That? Catch This

Graham Gingles, Fenderesky Gallery, 103-105 Royal Ave, Belfast Until Nov 26