Quality. A ubiquitous and specious term given that the visual arts have currently reached saturation point. Swings and roundabouts, eh. Meanwhile, prospectors for 24-karat nuggets could well shimmy down to Philips.

As is the latter’s nature, there is no chintzy hoopla of hype swirling about the aptly named Little Lever backstreet. Venture downstairs and you’ll be rewarded with the quietude and key works that help to distinguish this spot as a hidden gem of quality.

Free from superfluous text and curatorial chutzpah, this show lets the painting speak for itself. In short, it conjoins pictures from the likes of Lowry and Major with living artists like Liam Spencer and David Hancock.

The Lowrys reveal his range: here, the ‘empty’ canvas opposed to the sprawling, industrial reality. In one a single, central point of perspective, conjures you up a staircase - vanishing into a realm of nothingness: the imagined. The Theodore Major pieces fittingly depict subdued subjects in large spaces.

Ditto for Liam Spencer’s image of Urbis - reflecting all that empty sky - to a sparse citizenry in the rainy city.

Elsewhere, Spencer surprises with a hopperish style in pictures bereft of figures yet smacking of an uncanny, human presence. In all, 13 artists are shown - unlucky for those who stay away.

Something Old, Something New is at the Philips Contemporary Art Gallery, Little Lever Street, Manchester until Saturday, June 28.

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