Edge (Pink)

Zack Smithey

69″ x 69″

Acrylic & Oil-based Enamel on Canvas

Zack Smithey’s Edge (Pink) operates at the intersection of geometric abstraction and fluid gesture, a tension that has shaped modern and contemporary art since the mid-20th century. At first glance, the painting reads as a disciplined study in form: a bold architectural structure cuts through a luminous field of pink. Yet pushing through this hard-edge is a marbled, organic shape whose swirling colors interrupt the composition with unexpected movement.

This contrast evokes the long-standing dialogue between artists like Ellsworth Kelly and Helen Frankenthaler, where the precision of one lineage meets the improvisational flow of another. Smithey carries this conversation into a distinctly contemporary language, combining the crisp spatial planes associated with minimalism with a poured, serpentine form that seems to resist containment. The result is a compelling visual paradox of order challenged by intuition and structure confronted by release.

Smithey draws from pop sensibility and West Coast color-field traditions, yet the playful spatial complexity remains his own. The organic form at the center appears to hover between states, mirroring the way contemporary life often refuses categorization. It is neither fully contained nor fully free.

Edge (Pink) is featured in Mash Gallery’s Rhythmic Contours, a group exhibition dedicated to exploring line, movement, and the shifting boundaries of abstract expression.