Derick Smith

Black and Red

2016

Born in New York 1980 and raised in Ireland, Derick Smith initially began a career in design before moving on to chemical photography which resulted in his first solo exhibition in New York, 2006. Later, he began to experiment with sculpture and painting after graduating from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin 2012, and has since exhibited nationally and internationally. Within his practice materials are tools with a view to honoring their integral essence and of not losing sight of their primitive nature. The paint is treated primarily as paint; it is employed as a means towards exploring the possibility of the existence of 'pure vision'. Through the interaction of the paint with itself and, in so far as possible, the least intervention, one can bear witness to the unfolding of what may appear to be microcosms. The dripping and shifting textures, like water in nature, seeks the paths of least resistance and the lowest points of rest. Gravity is the primary inescapable force which touches everything and these snapshots seem stolen from the timeline of an otherwise downward demise. Within any piece one may be drawn into certain microcosmic 'universes', the echoes of happenings, which invite closer inspection. While stepping back a more distant view allows for an overall comprehension of the macrocosm. Aesthetically and technically, a balance is sought between this overall view and the density and depth of the echoes within. Somewhere between these viewing planes a form or image may be distinguished which pulls away from the paint. It can absorb the attention for a moment before the illusion fades and the awareness of the physicality of the paint as an object takes over. It is this dialogue, this toggling back and forth between form and object, the momentary suspension or interruption which is most readily pursued in Derick's pieces.