THE work of this painter is virtually unknown to me but he comes with some fanfares and, apparently, a sizeable reputation. Now in his mid forties (born Dublin, 1952), he appears to have worked much in Germany, a very competitive area for artists, and has been included in more than one prestigious international exhibition.
In spite of the spacious setting of the Temple Bar Gallery's big ground floor, the pictures are sparsely hung and, broadly speaking, they vary between the very large and the very small. In style they incline faintly towards minimalism, but without the bareness or angularity or the ascetic look which that term generally implies. The shapes are of the simplest - wavy, irregular lines in roughly parallel motion, or floating, quasi circular forms and off squares which set up certain colour resonances against their "ground". This is painting which runs in a now familiar channel: tasteful, controlled and notably well made. What it lacks is the quality of surprise, or of originlity, if you like; and, rather surprisingly, it is also: somewhat lacking in energy. It is, you might even say, much the international "academic" painting of today.
The fairly elaborate catalogue reproduces works which are not in the exhibition, and these do suggest that Smith's style is a good deal more varied and inventive than seems evident here. So a second look at him, and in greater numbers, might widen the horizons.