Aaron Gilbert, 2021.
Photo by Charlie Ahearn
Known for his quietly charged scenes, Aaron Gilbert (b. 1979) unearths the complex emotional terrain in the presence of societal crisis. His meticulously worked and reworked compositions are set against a backdrop of empirically American wreckage and unbridled technological acceleration. Gilbert earned his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from Yale University. He is a 2015 Louis Comfort Tiffany Award recipient and was awarded the “Young American Painter of Distinction” by the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2010. Gilbert has presented solo and two-person exhibitions at P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, Rome, Italy; and Lyles & King, New York, NY, among others. His work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY; Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.
Aaron Gilbert
b. 1979, Pennsylvania
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Education
2008
MFA Painting, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
2005
BFA Painting, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
2000
Associates of Science, Mechanical Engineering Technology, Penn State University, Centre County, PA
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2022
Aaron Gilbert, Sant’Andrea de Scaphis, Rome, Italy
2021
The door to the other world is always open, Chris Sharp Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
1981–2001, Martin Wong & Aaron Gilbert, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2019
Psychic Novellas, Lyles & King, New York, NY
Solo Booth with Lulu Gallery, NADA, Miami, FL
2016
Brooklyn Biennial, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
2014
Aaron Gilbert: Possessed, Mottahedan Projects, Dubai, UAE
Select Group Exhibitions
2024
Shifting Landscapes, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
2021
Picturing Motherhood Now: Images of a New Era, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Present Generations: Creating the Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Any distance between us, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
The Slipstream: Reflection, Resilience and Resistance in the Art of Our Time, The Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
2020
I WANT TO FEEL ALIVE AGAIN, Lyles & King, New York, NY
2019
Felix Art Fair, Nicodim Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Our Lady of the Flowers, Nicodim Gallery, Bucharest, Romania
Brooklyn Biennial, BRIC, Brooklyn, NY
2016
Demimonde: Amberwood House, London, United Kingdom
2014
Some Dark Miracle: Aaron Gilbert/Jason Mones, Artisanal House, New York, NY
Aaron Gilbert/Jose Pedro Godoy/Patrick McElnea: Cutlog Art Fair, Yael Rosenblut Gallery, New York, NY
For Marian, Five Myles Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
ExpoChicago, Aaron Gilbert/Augustina Woodgate, Spinello Projects, Chicago, IL
Bent In, Primetime Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013
American Identities, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Lessico Famigliare, FUTURE Center for Contemporary Art, Prague, Czech Republic
2012
Moments, AMO Studios, Brooklyn, NY
Don’t Wake Me Up, North Henry Annex, Brooklyn, NY
Re-Telling, curated by Melissa Levin, NUTUREart, Brooklyn, NY
Exhibition of Newly Elected Members and Recipients of Honors Awards, American Academy of Letters, New York, NY
2010
Invitational Exhibition, American Academy of Letters, New York, NY
Ves.sel, curated by Kenya (Robinson), J.W. Brennen Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
The Open, Deitch Studios, Long Island City, NY
Three Rooms, Ramis Barquet Gallery, New York, NY
2009
Gold Rush Awards, Rush Arts, New York, NY
Conceptual Figures, Deitch Projects, New York, NY
The New Akademiks, Galerie Schuster, Berlin, Germany
2008
Loop Video Art Fair, Barcelona, Spain
Select Public Collections
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA
Rhode Island School of Design Museum, Providence, RI
Studio Museum in Harlem, Harlem, NY
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Select Bibliography
2021
“4 Art Gallery Shows to See Right Now: Review of 1981-2021 Paintings by Aaron Gilbert and Martin Wong,” The New York Times
2020
“Aaron Gilbert’s Paintings Convey the Profound Potential of Human Life,” Elephant Journal, July 2020
2019
Schwendener, Martha, Worth, Alexi, and Cohen, David, ArtCritical Review Panel #96
Grunthaner, Jeffrey, “NADA’s Solution to the Growing Cost of Art Fairs,” Hyperallergic
2018
“Do you Believe in Evil?” Conversation with Julia Phillips and Aaron Gilbert,” Mousse Magazine
2016
Mitter, Siddhartha, “BRIC Biennial,” Village Voice
2014
Cotter, Holland, “For Marian,” New York Times
2012
“The Advanced Ebonics Issue,” YoYo Mag #4
2011
Vartanian, Hrag, “A Hot and Colorful Day on the NorthSide,” Hyperallergic
2009
“Spring: Studio,” The Studio Museum of Harlem
Awards
2022
BRIC Colene Brown Art Prize
2015
Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant
2013
Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
2012
Yaddo Artist Residency
2010
Rosenthal Family Foundation Award in Painting
American Academy of Arts and Letters: Art Purchase Program
2008
LMCC Workspace Residency
American Academy in Rome Affiliate Fellowship
Aaron Gilbert
Nightshift B15, 2020
oil on linen
30 x 38 ins.
76.2 x 96.5 cm
Aaron Gilbert
Goddess Walks Among Us Now, 2020
oil on canvas
60 x 48 ins.
152.4 x 121.9 cm
Aaron Gilbert
Empire State of Mind/Flaco 730 Broadway, 2020
oil on linen
40 x 46 ins.
101.6 x 116.8 cm
Aaron Gilbert
Conspirators, 2020
oil on canvas
38 x 40 ins.
96.5 x 101.6 cm
Aaron Gilbert
Summons, 2020
oil on canvas
35 x 38 ins.
88.9 x 96.5 cm
Aaron Gilbert
Song to the Siren, 2020
oil on canvas
36 x 42 ins.
91.4 x 106.7 cm
The Colene Brown Art Prize awards ten New York-based visual artists with $10,000 unrestricted grants. The Prize is underwritten by artist and former BRIC Board Member Deborah Brown and her sister Ellen Brown in memory of their late mother, Colene Brown, and is funded through the Harold and Colene Brown Family Foundation.
Chris Sharp Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of the Los Angeles and New York-based artist Aaron Gilbert.
The Brooklyn-based Cuban-American painter talks to us about the spirituality ever-present in his work.
The Columbus Museum of Art (CMA) is poised to become a contemporary art destination for years to come.
On my way to P·P·O·W’s new storefront gallery in Chinatown, coming out of the Canal Street J/Z subway, I walked past an imposing gray building that I later learned was the Manhattan Detention Complex. Known as “The Tombs,” it housed several hundred inmates before closing in November 2020.
Kitaoji Rosanjin’s graceful pottery; a dual show of Martin Wong and Aaron Gilbert paintings; the group exhibition “Latinx Abstract”; and Hou Zichao’s pixelized landscapes.
Art created during a crisis can be a powerful catharsis for both artist and audience. Chinese American Martin Wong (1946-1999) once said, “Everything I paint is within four blocks of where I live.”
As part of the gallery’s current show of works by contemporary Brooklyn painter Aaron Gilbert and the late artist Martin Wong, P.P.O.W. is hosting a Zoom talk with Gilbert, scholar and curator Rich Blint, and graffiti artist Chris Daze Ellis, a close friend of Wong’s.
P·P·O·W presented a virtual panel discussion between Brooklyn-based artist Aaron Gilbert; American graffiti artist and friend of Martin Wong, Chris Daze Ellis; and scholar, writer, and curator Rich Blint in conjunction with 1981-2021, the two-person exhibition featuring Gilbert and the late Chinese-American painter Martin Wong.
The latest exhibition at the Tribeca gallery P.P.O.W. juxtaposes the work of the Brooklyn-based artist Aaron Gilbert and the late Chinese American painter Martin Wong. This intergenerational dialogue focuses on two artists whose work chronicles a continuum of life within a city under siege.
In this new exhibit, the late artist Martin Wong's works will be paired with Aaron Gilbert’s ongoing series.
Sparking an intergenerational dialogue, this exhibition focuses on two artists whose practices amplify the societal pressures of both their private lives and the New York communities they inhabit.
Chronicles of the life in New York within the last 40 years.
P.P.O.W. Gallery // April 02, 2021 - May 01, 2021
