December 9 - January 22, 2012.
Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery presents the first New York solo show by David Gilbert, a Los Angeles based artist. A few months ago, David Gilbert extended an invitation to view the work before it left for New York. On that early morning in downtown LA, I was transfixed by the light in his studio. We spent the afternoon talking about interiors (his mother is an interior designer), the power of arrangement/non-arrangement, faded colors and what they signify, and the works that would be included in the upcoming show. For those in New York, David Gilbert's show opens this weekend, with a reception on Friday evening. Take time to visit...
"David Gilbert's installations of photography and sculpture are an effort to pin down ephemeral forms, creating a dialogue between image and actuality. Gilbert’s studio practice begins by working with humble materials such as fabric, clothing, paper, cardboard, paint, and yarn. The resulting messy, fragile, and often whimsical assemblages are arranged within the studio environment as still-life compositions or theatrical vignettes.
With a nod to painters such as Ingres and Vermeer, and photographers Robert Mapplethorpe and Peter Hujar, these “portraits” generate a conceptual fetishization of their subjects. The work operates between abstraction and vérité, where the viewer recognizes the materials from which the sculptures are made, but the resulting forms are ambiguous, ghostly or crude figurations.
---------------