Back in the 1990s, Rachel Howard was Damien Hirst's assistant. Off the back of that spell, Hirst called her his best spot painter. But whatever discipline she learned painting Hirst's repetitive spots, Howard has moved on to create paintings that are as complex as they are beguiling.

Whatever else may separate them, one thing the two artists have in common is a preoccupation with death. Howard has completed a series of paintings all about suicide.

You can see the possible instruments of death in smudgy, ink-like gloss paint - a pair of scissors or a ladder or perhaps the scene of a death, a bed for instance.

Or you'll see the familiar metaphor for the suicidally depressive - a black dog, not fierce and threatening but pathetic and emaciated.

Then there are the smudgy black figures with faces obscured, their shadowy, disintegrating bodies given up to their final moments.

Vividly animating the surface are shimmering faint strips of translucent colour.

If all this black gloom seems to get a bit repetitive, a surprising burst of colour greets you on the top floor: a series of large abstract paintings, mostly featuring a complex criss-cross of horizontal and vertical strips. Unlike the figurative works, these go under the title of Suicide Paintings. They are joyously seductive.

Until Feb 23, Haunch of Venison, 6 Haunch of Venison Yard, off Brook Street W1, Mon to Fri 10am to 6pm (Thu to 7pm), Sat 10am to 5pm, free. Tel: 020 7495 5050. www.haunchofvenison.com Tube: Bond Street