There are times when collaborations between two established artists result in each feeding off the creative energy of the other to make something greater than the sum of its parts – but not always. In the case of the joint efforts of Nick Morris and Dave Bowers, the artistic energy between them has created a persona, that of ‘Doug Bartlett’, under whose name they present their collaborative canvasses. They describe their process thus: “Each can paint over anything and the other can’t protest.”

As an artist, Doug Bartlett seems a little confused, and is perhaps experiencing some sort of mid-life crisis. His canvasses are crowded with images of fast cars and semi-naked women layered on top of screen prints, collages, cartoons and heavy, dripping brush strokes. He is advertised as a producer of ‘neo-Pop Art’ but sadly there is nothing very new about his works. The photographic images may hark back to a time when Pop Art was something to be wondered at, but presenting new work now in the aesthetic seems bland and uninspired.

In asking the audience to view these canvasses as the creation of some conceptual being that embodies the artists, it could be argued that Morris and Bowers are abandoning their creative responsibility. Given that the result comes across more as gimmicky rather than displaying real depth of concept, we can hardly blame them.

Mary Agnew