Zygotic Tendencies

Rubicon Gallery, 10 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin Tues-Sat noon-5pm Until May 12 01-6708055

Belfast-born, longtime Sligo-based artist Ronnie Hughes makes beautifully pitched abstract paintings. Often they evoke theoretical systems of one kind of another, sometimes on quite an ambitious level, such as string theory. But they are never earnest or pretentious about their concerns.

It’s not just Hughes’s deft, light touch, but the fact that humour can play an important role. In a playful though perceptive way, he engages with the way we devise theories and construct models based on them. But there is always room for the unpredictable.

In biology the zygote is the first stage in the development of a distinct, individual organism, and presumably Hughes is referring to the way the seed of an idea at the beginning of a work develops to become a painting that is surprisingly and intriguingly itself.

Can't see that? Catch this:

Block Party National Craft Gallery, Castle Yard, Kilkenny Until May 16 056-7796147