[Focus] Preston M. Smith, Paradigm Shift (2022)

Preston M. Smith, Paradigm Shift, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 102 × 76 × 4 cm

The surface is built through layered fields of color that slide, collide and break apart across the canvas. Vertical drips cut through broader planes, while scraped sections reveal earlier strata, giving the painting a sense of abrasion.

Color is used with intensity. Fluorescent yellows, reds and pinks erupt against darker passages, creating sharp contrasts that push the image forward. These bursts are uneven, appearing as interruptions, as if the surface had been fractured.

The composition does not stabilise. It shifts between dense accumulation and exposed areas where the raw canvas emerges, holding a constant tension between control and release.

In this sense, the painting operates as an outlet. The surface absorbs and releases energy, registering gestures that feel immediate and unfiltered. What remains is not a resolved image, but the trace of a process through which emotion is externalised and held in the material.