Staged Vignettes Capture Moments of Whimsy and Melancholy
Above Image: David Gilbert, "Shadow Lily," 2017. Courtesy of the artist and Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, New York.
On View April 18 – August 18, 2024 | Main Gallery
SECCA (North Carolina Museum of Art, Winston-Salem) is proud to present Flutter, an exhibition of photography by Los Angeles-based artist David Gilbert. Flutter marks the artist's first institutional solo exhibition, providing the unique opportunity to experience twelve years of Gilbert's work in one setting. An opening reception with the artist and curator will be held Thursday, April 18 from 6–8pm. Admission is free and open to the public.
David Gilbert creates photographs that flirt with impermanence. The artist constructs playful sculptures, backdrops, and scenes from found materials, photographing them in distinctive views and dramatic natural light. The resulting pictures capture spontaneous moments, paired with lightheartedness and sensitivity.
Gilbert's artistic practice is difficult to categorize. He is a painter, sculptor, and photographer. His approaches to making art vary, alternating between vibrant and colorful scenes to more austere, melancholic constructions. At certain points, his process echoes traditional still life, portrait, or landscape painting, yet his choice in subject matter and technique resists these rigid classifications.
Flutter presents photographs created between 2011 and 2023. All works are archival inkjet prints—a digital printing process that achieves lifelike resolution. Varying in size, the photographs represent Gilbert's attempt to "capture and suspend subtle moments and movements mid-flutter." When viewed together, they are evidence of Gilbert's continued engagement with fleetingness and rebellion, embodying an enigmatic spirit that subtly resides within them.
David Gilbert: Flutter is organized by Jared Ledesma, curator of 20th-century art and contemporary art.