Installation view of Ingo Meller, courtesy the gallery.

Stand close to Ingo Meller’s paintings and you can almost hear their rasp. Each brushstroke is a strident expression of intent and resolve. His predominantly wide brushes approach the generous linen fields fully loaded, discharging their consignment in urgent gestures that are liberated from any obligation to advertise or flaunt their expedition.

These bold and deliberate gestures feel made to counter the obvious charisma that seduces many painters and vulnerable audiences. In fact, so unbridled by dramatic imperative, the initial sense one has is that this exchange between Meller and his raw linen is so fundamental that there is little room for us as participant. The dance feels binary by nature and how and if we might successfully ‘cut in’ is unclear.

But what Meller does give us between these rasping notes is space, plenty of it. As articulated as the spare composition appears, the field, particularly with its open edges, offers a symbolically boundless territory, emancipated from the restrictions and orthodoxies of folded stretchers and authoritative frames. In this sense alone, they are more available.