Tag: Photography

Solo Shows

David Gilbert’s fugitive miracles

Contributed by Bill Arning / With the photographs of Los Angeles–based artist David Gilbert, whose show “Stationary” is now up at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, one repeatedly asks: where exactly is the art occurring? He has found a way to destabilize the exact moment when ordinary objects shift into Fine Art with a capital A. At first glance, these works can appear almost incidental – serene accounts of light falling across a studio wall, with scraps of paper, drawings, and pinned objects casually arranged. They masquerade as found images, random moments merely “noticed” by a wandering photographer with a point-and-shoot camera. The spaces are shallow and flat; the compositions initially seem haphazard.

Gallery shows Group Shows

Lucas Blalock and Julia Rommel’s well-oiled machine

Contributed by Jacob Patrick Brooks / Consider the hunk as a deliberate, usable form, as Julia Rommel does. Her paintings are hunks of color painted on linen – cut up, unstretched, and stapled into off-the-air color TV bars. They are as much about labor as color. Each painting feels as though it was sledgehammered into the wall just before you walked in the room, still ringing from the strike. Flanking Rommel through the show is Lucas Blalock, photographer. His photos operate similarly, offering an easy, even fun, seduction that segues into discovery as you find out how he’s tricked you. Images are cut and layered over one another, details are hidden. The viewer is rewarded for close, patient attention, as in an I Spy book.