A new body of work by Oxford artist Jan Crombie on show at the OVADA Gallery, Gloucester Green, is the latest in an exciting series of one person exhibitions, featuring the work of emerging artists who are now being taken seriously. This show, which is the result of several years of planning and painting, explores the question of identity by asking What is it like to be a Bat? It’s a question first posed by philosopher L. S. Sprigge and made famous by Thomas Nagel in an article of the same name, published in 1974.

More than three decades later, Jan Crombie uses oils on canvas to ask the question again, but not as a philosopher. Hers is a painter’s response to the existentialist idea of searching for self or identity. They follow Jan’s exploration of the dialect of mind and body, of thought and instinct and of the conscious and the subconscious. It’s a journey that she invites us all to share through her paintings of faceless characters of ambiguous ages and gender that she has pulled out of her imagination and laid bare for all to see. Her aim is to draw us in to her world, and that’s exactly what her paintings do, though it’s not always easy to discover which world you are exploring as you gaze at these faceless forms. Somehow that doesn’t seem to matter if you have a strong sense of your own identity. If you haven’t, your visit to OVADA will become a thought-provoking experience that may live with you for some time.

The other question Jan Crombie asks is What the F*** is Bebo?

She overheard this question spoken by a youth with a particularly loud voice, when she was visiting a café. It inspired her to create a series of smaller paintings that take over the rear wall of the main gallery space. The child-like figures in their various poses that she has placed together appear to be struggling with their sense of identity too.

This exhibition continues until November 29, and is certainly a show not to be missed. There’s no guarantee Jan’s work will help you find yourself, but it will certainly generate questions for which you may not have an answer – yet.