A lesson in art history

Although Dexter Dalwood paints the recent past, his pictures aren't history paintings. After all, they make no attempt to recreate a past that is either glorious or heroic.

Desert Storm, for example, has two huge spermatozoa floating on a picture plane which opens on to a deserted battle scene - presumably a pithy statement about the perceived macho war-mongering of the Coalition forces during the first Gulf war.

A contemporaneous slice of history also gives us the 1990 Poll Tax Riots, painted in 2005. The scene is a desolate Trafalgar Square, swamped by a sea of blank placards held up by faceless, thronging crowds.

A vista of graffiti leads to the Houses of Parliament, with Big Ben's tower thrusting into an ominous orange sky - the Mother of Parliaments witnessing a protest at possibly the unfairest tax in recent democratic history.

But Dalwood's subject is also the history of art, and motifs from Picasso to Bacon to Lichtenstein crop up. There are echoes of Lichtenstein's Brushstoke, which also makes a nodding reference to the Japanese artist Hokusai and his iconic wave, in The Deluge (of the 2004 tsunami). Although the mood in the gallery is sombre, the paintings can't help but exude a playful cleverness that is entirely beguiling.

Until Feb 2, Gagosian Gallery, 6-24 Britannia Street WC1, Tue to Sat 10am to 6pm (closed Fri to Jan 3), free. Tel: 020 7841 9960. Tube: King's Cross

Dexter Dalwood: Recent History
Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street
Britannia Street, WC1X 9JD