Wertz/Contemporary, a gallery in the Castleberry district, is hosting a lively exhibit of five young artists from around the country. The one local, Eric Mack, holds his own. In fact, his paintings are the best he's done.

Mack, 29, started to get attention a few years ago for colorful collaged paintings whose compositions of dense abstract shapes exuded a youthful urban energy. Like a graffiti artist, he wanted to apply his distinctive vocabularyto all sorts of surfaces, from doors to curcuit boards. Those latter experiments, in which he covered the board with globs of paint, turned out to be a wrong turn - but that's part of the maturation process. Fortunately, he has found his way again, with painting.

Mack is still, as he once said, "all about shape, pattern and repetition of form." But he's loosened up. As he's gained command of his medium, he's experimented with brushwork, adding dribbles, stipples and washes to the thickly laid paint he favored before. THe abstract forms abut, overlap and sometime seem to be cracking up and gloating into space, which is apt in a series that ponders outer space.

Mack has also turned the dial down. He has introduced softer colors, and he gives his riffs some breathing room by opening up the compositions with negative space. THe energy's still there, but he's pacing himself, and allowing the viewer to take in the variety and detail of his work.

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