Window Treatments

David Gilbert’s practice embraces a variety of media, including sculpture, painting, assemblage, and installation, yet ultimately it culminates in photography. He repurposes scraps and found objects: fabric, yarn, paper, and cardboard to create transitory scenes in his studio. The ephemeral nature of his material choices leads to the creation of poetic, haunting images.

In photographs devoid of people, Gilbert pays careful attention to natural lighting so that light and shadow become the significant characters. While intentional in their compositions, the works also rely on chance and improvisation as the artist captures the quickly changing sunlight beaming into his studio. This ever-changing and often fading light infuses the work with a meditative and melancholic air. 

While photography is often embraced for its supposed objective, documentary nature, Gilbert’s photographs celebrate the suggestive and the beautiful – deliberately leaving room for mystery and curiosity: he asks the viewer to allow for uncertainty and to participate in the process of interpretation.