HIGHLIGHT Gallery draws our attention to the fact that this week is the last chance to catch American poet and painter Rene Ricard's exhibition "New Paintings and Not So New" before it closes on December 9. Numerous works created by Ricard over the past decade are displayed, with the common medium being oil on linen, over which hand-painted poems and text are laid in the artist's signature font.

Taking inspiraton from various photographic sources, many of the paintings are stylistically neoclassical and, when combined with the poetry, they are "at once humorous, witty, historical, confessional and evocative". "New Paintings and Not So New" runs until December 9, 2012. at HIGHLIGHT, 17 Kearny Street, San Francisco.

Jack Smylie