Thursday 9th January 2006. © Nino Mustica

Kay Carson enjoys the naked body paintings and dramatic swirls of Nino Mustica in a new show of work at Bury Art Gallery.

Is it his grand, swirling patterns, or his modus operandi which makes Nino Mustica’s visions so intriguing?

Showing at Bury Art Gallery until September 9, 2006, the Milan-based artist has produced 14 new paintings for this exhibition - surprisingly his first in the UK, given his status in continental Europe and a career spanning almost 30 years.

With an inadvertent nod to McLuhan’s ‘the medium is the message’ dictum, the fascination lies not in the works themselves, striking though they may be, but in how Mustica executes his pieces.

Monday 10th April 2006. © Nino Mustica

He is undoubtedly a man of the 21st century: laid-back, approachable; yet you feel an exquisite sense of 1960s bohemia when you discover that he uses naked women as tools on his canvas. Neither subject nor object, the models have paint applied on to their bodies, which are then rolled around to generate patterns.

The results - leaning towards abstract expressionism - are kaleidoscopic segments of tone and colour where, at times, the curvaceous outline of a model can be clearly seen, as in Friday 21st October (2005), a writhing, black and white tableaux set on a dramatic red backdrop.

Likewise, in Tuesday 6th December (2005), the black and blue enamel is further set into motion with large, sweeping brush strokes - a design which could ultimately be dubbed a Mustica trademark. In Monday 10th April (2006), the lines take on a more deliberate, stylised appearance; but one of the most beautiful is the almost aquatic Friday 29th September (2006), projecting a richness and depth belying the flatness of the painting.

Friday 29th September 2006. © Nino Mustica

The more you look, the more you see. His art possesses an incredible energy which is at once kinetic and potential. Curator Richard Burns says Mustica’s works “stop short of a state that most visitors would recognise as ‘complete’. They appear to embody a fluid state of ‘becoming’”.

And it is that sense of expectation, coupled with the juxtaposition of two and three-dimensional perspectives, which is brought to the fore in his video installations.

Evoluzioni Pittoriche I (1996), a film of evolving, morphing shapes, floating across the wall rather like a sophisticated screensaver, is a piece generated by using a computer program to read and interpret the contours of Mustica’s paintings.

Friday 21st October 2005. © Nino Mustica

He takes his work to a surreal pitch in the enchanting Evoluzioni Pittoriche II (2001) when, standing in a white room, he appears to 'pull' colours out of the ether. Reaching up into what looks like bland infinity, his brush is more akin to a magic wand as it twists and turns, leaving an iridescent trail in its wake.

Mustica’s imagination comes full circle in his fibreglass sculpture. The gnarled structures - oddly devoid of colour - are physical manifestations of the computer translations, which are, in turn, derived from his paintings.

It is intriguing to experience how it all unfolds, how he manages to convey his ideas on so many levels, using technology to seemingly defy time, space and rationale.