Aaron Gilbert Work | Artist Statement & CV | Return to Artist List
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Artist Statement
My work addresses how power is negotiated through intimate interactions, and the creative ways people navigate desire, affection, and vulnerability.
My interest is in depicting characters who defy their circumstances and agendas of others. After having a metal plate put in my head in 2010, I became aware of how visible bodily changes force us to recalibrate how we navigate in society. The one-armed man in the etchings is a recurring stand-in for a mature version of myself.
Many of the figures within the work are liminal, existing on boundaries between races, and many of the relationships are interracial. My background is mixed, white and Latino, and my wife is African American. Both of our families have long histories of repeated mixing across ethnicity and race; generation after generation. The external social pressures exerted on personal relationships are always shifting, and never manifest in the same way. I want these images to cultivate a conversation on nuanced and varying legacies of colonialism, and how personality, love and rawness of individual reactions can re-define ones agency in society, and ones sense of self.
The Seeds/Ancestors painting depicts procreation as an event that involves the influence of deceased bloodlines of both participants, and merges the metaphysical and the erotic. The visual structure of my paintings borrows heavily from retablos, miniatures and byzantine icons: Pictorial traditions of societies that analyze the world symbolically, and use a sophisticated conceptual framework for narrative figuration.
As a medium, figurative painting has a rare ability to continue visual conversations that have been in progress for thousands of years. I am interested in painting’s ability to find connections in human experience between our current moment and the past.
My work addresses how power is negotiated through intimate interactions, and the creative ways people navigate desire, affection, and vulnerability.
My interest is in depicting characters who defy their circumstances and agendas of others. After having a metal plate put in my head in 2010, I became aware of how visible bodily changes force us to recalibrate how we navigate in society. The one-armed man in the etchings is a recurring stand-in for a mature version of myself.
Many of the figures within the work are liminal, existing on boundaries between races, and many of the relationships are interracial. My background is mixed, white and Latino, and my wife is African American. Both of our families have long histories of repeated mixing across ethnicity and race; generation after generation. The external social pressures exerted on personal relationships are always shifting, and never manifest in the same way. I want these images to cultivate a conversation on nuanced and varying legacies of colonialism, and how personality, love and rawness of individual reactions can re-define ones agency in society, and ones sense of self.
The Seeds/Ancestors painting depicts procreation as an event that involves the influence of deceased bloodlines of both participants, and merges the metaphysical and the erotic. The visual structure of my paintings borrows heavily from retablos, miniatures and byzantine icons: Pictorial traditions of societies that analyze the world symbolically, and use a sophisticated conceptual framework for narrative figuration.
As a medium, figurative painting has a rare ability to continue visual conversations that have been in progress for thousands of years. I am interested in painting’s ability to find connections in human experience between our current moment and the past.
CV
Aaron Gilbert
b. 1979
EDUCATION
2008, MFA, Painting, Yale School of Art
2005, BFA, Painting, Rhode Island School of Design
2000, Associates of Science, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Penn State University
AWARDS
- 2010 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Painting
- 2010 American Academy of Arts and Letters: Art Purchase Program
- 2008 LMCC Workspace Residency
- American Academy in Rome Affiliate Fellowship, summer 2008
- (nominee) Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant nominee
- (nominee) 2007 Rema Hort Mann Foundation nominee
- Jacob K. Javits Commended Scholar
- Semifinalist: 2006 Outwin Boochever National Portrait Competition
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
- Gordon Peers Award, RISD, Providence, RI
- John A. Chirrona Memorial Scholarship, RISD, Providence, RI
COLLECTIONS
- Brooklyn Museum of Art, Permanent Collection
- Peggy Cooper Cafritz
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2011
Dont Wake Up, North Henry Annex, Brooklyn, NY
2010
Exhibition of Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards,
American Academy of Arts and Letters
633 W. 155th St., New York, NY
Parlour No. 13 , Parlour Nomadic Exhibition Space
New York, NY
Invitational Exhibition, American Academy of Arts and Letters
633 W. 155th St., New York, NY
Ves.sel, Curated by Kenya (Robinson)
J.W. Brennan Gallery. Jersey City, NJ
2009
The Open, Deitch Studios
Long Island City, NY
Three Rooms, Ramis Barquet Gallery
532 W. 24th St. New York, NY
Gold Rush Awards, benefit event, Rush Arts
40 Thompson St. New York, NY
2008
Conceptual Figures, Deitch Projects
76 Grand St. New York, NY
The New Akademiks, Galerie Schuster
Berlin, Germany
Artwalk, Metropolitan Pavilion
New York, Ny
Loop Video Art Fair,
Barcelona, Spain
Yale School of Art MFA Thesis Exhibit
New Haven, CT
2007
Some Kind of Portrait, curated by Simon Watson, Marc Selwyn Fine Art,
Los Angeles, CA
2005
Out in Front: Collecting Contemporary Art in RI with Paula and Leonard Granoff,
Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence RI
Aaron Gilbert – New Work, Gallery Agniel,
120 North Main St. Providence, RI
Invitational, Woods-Gerry Gallery,
RISD, Providence, RI.
Painting and Glass Thesis Exhibition, Woods-Gerry Gallery,
RISD, Providence, RI.
Juried Exhibit, Hillel Gallery,
80 Brown St. Providence, RI
Birds, Gallery Agniel,
120 North Main St. Providence, RI
2004
RISD Athena Awards, 2004,
Tribeca Rooftop, 2 Desbrosses Street, NY.
RISD Painting Department Triennial, Woods-Gerry Gallery,
RISD, Providence, RI.
Blacklight City Neon Nation, Red Door Gallery,
RISD, Providence
Aaron Gilbert
b. 1979
EDUCATION
2008, MFA, Painting, Yale School of Art
2005, BFA, Painting, Rhode Island School of Design
2000, Associates of Science, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Penn State University
AWARDS
- 2010 Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Painting
- 2010 American Academy of Arts and Letters: Art Purchase Program
- 2008 LMCC Workspace Residency
- American Academy in Rome Affiliate Fellowship, summer 2008
- (nominee) Joan Mitchell Foundation MFA Grant nominee
- (nominee) 2007 Rema Hort Mann Foundation nominee
- Jacob K. Javits Commended Scholar
- Semifinalist: 2006 Outwin Boochever National Portrait Competition
- National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian
- Gordon Peers Award, RISD, Providence, RI
- John A. Chirrona Memorial Scholarship, RISD, Providence, RI
COLLECTIONS
- Brooklyn Museum of Art, Permanent Collection
- Peggy Cooper Cafritz
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2011
Dont Wake Up, North Henry Annex, Brooklyn, NY
2010
Exhibition of Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors and Awards,
American Academy of Arts and Letters
633 W. 155th St., New York, NY
Parlour No. 13 , Parlour Nomadic Exhibition Space
New York, NY
Invitational Exhibition, American Academy of Arts and Letters
633 W. 155th St., New York, NY
Ves.sel, Curated by Kenya (Robinson)
J.W. Brennan Gallery. Jersey City, NJ
2009
The Open, Deitch Studios
Long Island City, NY
Three Rooms, Ramis Barquet Gallery
532 W. 24th St. New York, NY
Gold Rush Awards, benefit event, Rush Arts
40 Thompson St. New York, NY
2008
Conceptual Figures, Deitch Projects
76 Grand St. New York, NY
The New Akademiks, Galerie Schuster
Berlin, Germany
Artwalk, Metropolitan Pavilion
New York, Ny
Loop Video Art Fair,
Barcelona, Spain
Yale School of Art MFA Thesis Exhibit
New Haven, CT
2007
Some Kind of Portrait, curated by Simon Watson, Marc Selwyn Fine Art,
Los Angeles, CA
2005
Out in Front: Collecting Contemporary Art in RI with Paula and Leonard Granoff,
Sol Koffler Gallery, Providence RI
Aaron Gilbert – New Work, Gallery Agniel,
120 North Main St. Providence, RI
Invitational, Woods-Gerry Gallery,
RISD, Providence, RI.
Painting and Glass Thesis Exhibition, Woods-Gerry Gallery,
RISD, Providence, RI.
Juried Exhibit, Hillel Gallery,
80 Brown St. Providence, RI
Birds, Gallery Agniel,
120 North Main St. Providence, RI
2004
RISD Athena Awards, 2004,
Tribeca Rooftop, 2 Desbrosses Street, NY.
RISD Painting Department Triennial, Woods-Gerry Gallery,
RISD, Providence, RI.
Blacklight City Neon Nation, Red Door Gallery,
RISD, Providence
Seeds/Ancestors30” x 40”
Oil on Aluminum
2011
A Study of Men9” x 13”
Oil on Panel
2007
The New One38” x 43”
Oil on Canvas
2007
The New One(detail)38” x 43”
Oil on Canvas
2007
Mother Birthing Daughter5.5” x 5.5”
Etching
2008
Soap and Porcelain3” x 5.5”
oil and gold-leaf on panel
2008
Plumage36” x 59”
Oil on Canvas
2008
Love Scene19.75” x 23.75”
Oil on Canvas
2008
Vessel9” x 9”
Etching
2009
Teeth12.75” x 16”
Oil and Mother-of-Pearl on Panel
2009
Judah10.75” x 13.75”
Oil and Mother-of-Pearl on Panel
2009
Carton4” x 9”
Oil on Aluminum
2011
Patricide24” x 48”
Oil and gold-leaf on panel
2010
Patricide (detail)24” x 48”
Oil and gold-leaf on panel
2010
Waterbed4.5” x 5”
Etching
2011
White Lilly7” x 6.5”
Etching
2011
Tampa6” x 6.5”
Etching
2011
Thieves In The Temple6” x 6.5”
Etching
2011
How A Man Gets A Woman Back16” x 20”
Oil and Polaroid Snapshot on Panel
2011
6 a.m. Saturday10” x 23”
Etching
2011