From the mid 19th century right through the 20th, painting has been regularly written off by artists and theorists as an irrelevance, a spent force or a dead art. Yet reports of its demise have so far proved to be more than a little exaggerated. Painting has always managed to resurrect itself and find new lines of inquiry. Belfast's Ormeau Baths alludes to this state of affairs in the title of its exhibition The Repeated Disappearance of Painting. Neither an historical nor a comprehensive contemporary survey, the show is rather a cross-section of current painting in Northern Ireland, featuring the work of six artists and encompassing a remarkable diversity of approach, from Gerard Devlin's explorations of personal history to Padraig McCann's social and political realities. They, and Mark Ainsworth, Darren Murray, Stephen Ferguson and St Claire Allen variously exemplify the medium's enduring attraction and potential.
