Subtly provocative art

There are some artists who see connections in things that, to a mere observer, may feel wholly unrelated; and there are those who make obvious connections while it's not really clear what they're trying to say beyond the initial alliance of subject matter.

In his first solo exhibition in London, British artist Shezad Dawood presents a series of paintings called American Wild West. That is, small paintings of outlaw figures with close-set eyes and prominent jaws; a figure wielding a rifle and a picture of a stag, the trophy object of life on the wild frontiers.

Each picture is painted with a black background and in cold, gold and blue-tinged colours that are heavily reminiscent of the 16th and 17th-century painter El Greco. Shown in a darkened gallery, the pictures are spotlit, so they also remind you of religious-icon paintings. This association with religion is apt, since, in the middle of this darkened space, are four vitrines containing neon-lit signs embedded in tumbleweed. Each sign (pictured) is in Arabic and relates to Islam's 99 Names of God.