David Gilbert: Painted Ladies

Rebecca Camacho Presents is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new work by Los Angeles-based artist David Gilbert. Gilbert documents ephemeral vignettes he makes in his studio: photography offers an ability to capture and emphasize the transitory nature of the work. Thoughtfully orchestrating objects in scenes, Gilbert’s photographs depict impeccably rendered environments both spontaneous and self-created. Titled Painted Ladies, the show debuts a suite of images conceived while in residency at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY in early Spring.

Light, space, and touch are pillar elements in David Gilbert’s work. The fruition of his labor and the resulting images are elementally tied to where they are created; composing the Painted Ladies photographs within the month-long span of a pastoral residency resulted in airy, ethereal compositions. Materials and sculptures appear and reappear image to image, altered slightly yet maintaining continuity as a group. Enigmatic centralized subjects are the core of many images, frontal yet mysterious. The easy touch of open space is balanced by a fleeting poetic urgency.

And yet for all that can be defined in Gilbert’s work, the most constant presence in his practice is that which defies explanation. In tandem with the layered, trompe l’oeil effect of his documented scenes, Gilbert’s photos are imbued with personal, visceral nostalgia. He gives entry to private environments, putting the viewer in position of voyeur. What is seen evokes a response from the senses, reminding us of places we’ve been. In Gilbert's world, equally familiar and foreign, emotion becomes the common denominator.