PINKNEY HERBERT
DLG presents In Between, a collection of paintings by Memphis-based artist Pinkney Herbert.
Known for his expressive abstraction in oil and acrylic, Herbert translates energy, place, and sound into gesture, color, and form. In these new works, architectural fragments, shifting planes, and rhythmic lines collide in compositions that feel both constructed and improvised. Saturated hues, sharp angles, and layered passages create visual tension, capturing an emotional mapping of urban life filtered through Herbert’s intuitive engagement with his surroundings.
Deeply informed by place and music, Herbert’s practice reflects more than three decades of back and forth between New York and Memphis. Maintaining studios in both cities, he absorbs the distinct visual languages, sonic textures, and tempos of each environment. These experiences surface in the paintings as deliberate marks and precise layering, where hard-edged geometry meets fluid gesture, and dense color fields interrupt and overlap one another.
The works in In Between suggest liminal spaces between structure and improvisation. Lines echo pathways and infrastructure, while forms shift between figuration and abstraction, evoking movement, memory, and rhythm. Herbert’s surfaces reveal a constant push and pull between control and spontaneity, resulting in compositions that feel charged, restless, and alive.