Manuel Palacio, whose work dominates the two-man show at the Kafu gallery on Parliament Street, is an artist who paints with gusto and, very often, an exuberant and obvious sexuality.

In this show there is plenty of gusto but much less sexuality than usual. The overriding sense of this show is texture and, true to form, his texture is lavish.

The first of the paintings was entitled ?It Takes a Nation of Millions Ode to Public Enemy?. I didn?t it.

A large, square canvas with very heavy impasto paint in primary colours enhanced with paint can tops and tubes and left over, solidified paint taken from the bottom of cans, it was bright and colourful, textured and rich but without colour scheme or apparent composition.

The next painting was ?Welcome to Bermuda; Leave Your Balls at the Door?. The subject was a male nude, dramatically rendered with anatomical correctness and good foreshortening. Draped across the figure at pubic hair level was a (real) Bermuda Ensign with the ?Leave your Balls at the Door? message painted onto it. There are plenty of political messages to be read into this well thought out and dramatically presented work. It didn?t occur to me to lift the flag to check on the rest of the painting.

Mr. Palacio comes into his own, however, with his ?National Treasure Series I, II, and III?. Two of these are in the gallery-cum-beauty salon and the other faces you as you climb the stairs outside.

The two in the gallery are, perhaps, the best of the Gombey paintings that have been so popular in recent years among artists. They are worked in mixed media, including real peacock feathers, wire mesh masks and applied glitter.

The movement inherent in the composition is enhanced by the blurring effect of embedded fibres in the paint. The paintings are filled with colour and swirling motion, energetic and vibrant just the kind of large works that would enhance the arrivals area at the airport or the cruise ship terminals in Hamilton or St. George?s.

The outdoor version of the Gombey series isn?t so commanding. Obviously it couldn?t be enhanced with real feathers and everything had to be weatherproof. It has beads and buttons to add texture and glitter, but it was much less alive as a painting than its indoor partners.

?Those Blacks and Their Drums?, a tripartite work reminiscent of Jackson Pollock, had no discernable blacks or drums, but the paintings were vibrant with colour, rooted with green (grass?) at the bottom and purple (sky?) at the top and heavily textured with the prevailing embedded fibres and wire mesh. I was unclear what the message, if any, might be, but the works were a pleasure to look at.

Landscapes are not usually Mr. Palacio?s chosen mode of painting, but in this show there are three in a ?Court Street Series?, the House of Assembly, St. Paul AME Church and a view looking east on Dundonald Street across Court Street.

The House of Assembly suffered from an excess of contrasts where St. Paul?s was softened by shadows.

The striking one of the three was View From ?Back a Town?, the Dundonald Street view of the old Victorian veranda across Court Street contrasted by a brilliantly sunlit yellow wall of the newer building on the west corner emphasised by its outside staircase. It made for a most effective composition.

?Magnolia? was a square tangle of branches and impasto leaves punctuated by sparse magnolias, the whole rather unusually gloomy in contrast to the brilliance and exuberance of the rest of the works.

?Pornographers and New Alike? still had not been hung on the day after last Friday?s opening.

Needless to say I was as disappointed as were, apparently, most of the guests at the reception the evening before.

Interspersed amongst the sheer energy of Mr. Palacio?s work, the small contrasting pairs of photographs by Glen Wilks were nothing if not overwhelmed.

Each of the works contrasts a narrow and confined shot, all taken in the Union Square subway station on Fourteenth Street in New York City, dirtier and more rundown than I have ever noticed, with doors of buildings in Mexico, spare, plain and of an elegant simplicity.

Each one has its own particular interest. I couldn?t entirely fathom the reason for matching or contrasting two such entirely disparate subjects in a single frame.

The odd man out in the series was a photograph taken at night of one of those magnificently elaborate cathedral fa?ades to be found throughout Central America fully floodlit. It was both gentle and dramatic, soft and startling and very pleasing.

This is a show of strong contrasts and certainly worth a visit. Be prepared to dodge the clients of the salon as they move from shampoo to the next stage.