Gradient

David Smith

Saturday 24th May to Friday 27th June 2025

Dawn Gradient is an exhibition of recent paintings that explore the fluidity of memory and the present moment. These works reflect an internal picture of lived, remembered, and imagined experiences — records of shifting perception.

Influenced by zen, ink painting, abstraction, and photography, the paintings often take the form of landscapes or object studies. Yet, at their core, they examine the transient nature of the physical world and our ever-changing perception of it. Through dissolving surfaces and shifting imagery, each piece embodies the instability of memory / perception where impressions momentarily take hold, only to unfix and fade. 

More recently, the work has focused on small-scale light sources; candles, fires, electric lights—drawing inspiration from the experience of winter storms in Ireland. In moments of electrical blackout, attention is drawn to the immediate environment while a vast expanse of energy roars overhead. Each painting seeks to capture the animation, space, energy, and decay that vibrates beneath the world around us and our perception of it. 

David Smith, from County Mayo and currently living and working in Sligo, works primarily in painting, but also lens-based and music works. Solo exhibitions include City-Haze at Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati, Greyscale at AJC Contemporary, Hong Kong, An Island Disappears at Custom House Gallery, Westport. 

He has participated in the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism and Architecture. His works have featured in numerous Manifest International Painting Annuals. He lived and worked in Hong Kong for 11 years before returning to Ireland in 2016. 

His film Eó Mughna’s Lament screened at Cannes Short Film Festival. Alongside his studio practice, 2 short films were released in 2023, Nemeton and Abhartach. He completed an artists residency at The Dock in Leitrim in 2023 and has just held a solo exhibition, Gaussian Blur at Ashford Gallery, RHA Dublin in early 2025.