An explosion of colour

Attempting to reinvigorate the language of abstraction isn't a fashionable preoccupation among younger artists right now. But Phillip Allen certainly isn't afraid to try.

His playfully exuberant canvases aren't burdened by the weightiness of history, but delight in their pure decorative appeal, in bold colour and contrasting texture.

His colourful abstract paintings make reference to the natural world and there is something carnivalesque about them. A number of interlocking circling loops, dotted with jewel-like spheres in bright colours, stretch across the width of one huge work, reminding you of dizzying fairground rides, or maybe the London Eye seen through a pair of rainbow-coloured specs.

In two other works, there are references to the biomorphic forms of Miró: dozens of silhouetted Miró-esque forms swim across the canvas, bringing to mind the ocean depths Perhaps even the underwater scene in Bedknobs And Broomsticks.

Framing the tops and bottoms of each canvas are globules of gluey paint, while bold lines busily lead your eye to various points on its surface.

If there's one fault, it's that Allen's paintings are sometimes too busy. You wish you could have held out a restraining hand before he went on to paint a dozen more fishy forms.

Until April 4, The Approach, 1st Floor, 47 Approach Road E2, Wed to Sun midday to 6pm, free. Tel: 020 8983 3878. Tube: Bethnal Green