Gladstone presents an exhibition of new paintings and works on paper by Brooklynbased artist Aaron Gilbert, marking his first solo presentation in Belgium on view through June 27. Gilbert is known for depicting scenes from private everyday life while invoking the weight of institutional forces, setting intimate narratives against the fluorescent glow cast by the iconography of feudal late-stage technocapitalism. Gilbert’s paintings capture the visual framework of his Brooklyn microcosm and the characters that populate it with a hyper-specificity that advances from the social realism of Gustave Courbet, Otto Dix, and George Tooker, focusing on the transformative potential of individuals and love as a transcending power amid a social infrastructure dictated by commodity fetishism.
While Gilbert’s own presence is typically palpable within the deeply personal interactions he represents, these new paintings mark a stark shift in perspective. His vantage point recedes before the frame and he becomes an observer encountering something transitory and unknowable in each scene, an outsider looking in. Interior lives and dynamics between figures are impossible to discern. A man clutching a potted plant stands before the open back seat door of a Hyundai as a woman in an evening gown emerges. A pedestrian appears subtly levitating, luminescing under an awning on an otherwise dark and rainy night, as he passes in front of a perforated roll gate partially obscuring and distorting an infinitely deep visual field. The intense, direct gaze of a woman holding a phone to her ear is both immediate and elusive, drawing the viewer into a moment that feels simultaneously confrontational and inaccessible. A man lifts the edge of a doormat in what appears to be an ordinary gesture but is possibly the uncovering of an illusion, or a momentary penetration of the threshold between the labyrinth that contains our social world and a larger external force.
Gilbert’s paintings reverberate with visual harmony observed directly from his immediate surroundings. He returns to the same storefronts— an eyebrow threading salon, a Gopuff, an Adidas store, and an AT&T store with a Bluemercury logo reflected in its window from across the street— with repeated and rigorous attention, harnessing a different phenomenon each time. His eye transcends what is directly present, revealing a magically charged underpinning to each space. Enchanted raindrops, ectoplasmic puddles, unnaturally emitted light, visual echoes, and transparencies suggest a thin veil between our world and supernatural activity beyond our understanding. In a time defined as much by the seismic changes we anticipate as by our lived experience, Gilbert’s work not only encapsulates this ultra-contemporary moment but catches the spectre of our looming future.
About Aaron Gilbert
Aaron Gilbert (b. 1979, Altoona, PA) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Gilbert received a BFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) in 2005 followed by a MFA in painting from Yale University in 2008. Gilbert also holds an Associate of Science in Mechanical Engineering Technology from Penn State University (2000). Gilbert’s work has been exhibited with Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, Rome; PPOW Gallery, New York; Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles; Lyles & King, New York; and Deitch Projects, New York. Gilbert’s work is in major public collections including the Whitney Museum of American Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Hammer Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, Columbus Museum of Art, High Museum, and RISD Museum. Aaron Gilbert has also been the recipient of many awards including the Colene Brown Art Prize in 2022, Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant in 2015, and was named the 2010 “Young American Painter of Distinction” by the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Gilbert has held residencies at Fountainhead Residency (2013), Yaddo (2012), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Workspace Residency (2008), and American Academy in Rome Affiliate Fellowship (2008).
Aaron Gilbert is a contemporary painter who captures the psychological and philosophical complexities of the human experience through compelling figuration and intricate emotional landscapes amidst societal upheaval. Gilbert weaves together nuanced narratives that explore the intersection of personal, social, and historical forces, drawing influence from art historical references as far reaching as Italian Quattrocento, Mexican Retablos, Byzantine Icons, Pompeii Frescoes, and artists of the Weimar Republic that shaped Modernism and Expressionism.
Gladstone is known for its commitment to artists whose prescient approaches and experimental practices have defined the contours of contemporary art. The gallery has long been an active partner in the cultivation of iconoclastic careers, fostering a roster of artists recognized for their ground-breaking contributions. Headquartered in New York and including outposts in both Brussels and Seoul, Gladstone’s impact extends globally, enabling both the presentation of new bodies of work, and an amplification of the international reach of its artists. Alongside its work with contemporary artists, the gallery is steward to the legacies of pivotal historical artists and serves as an advocate for the enduring power of art. Gladstone is led by a team of partners who spearhead its long-term vision and program, building on the values of its founder Barbara Gladstone.
