James Gilbert is a Los Angeles based visual artist working in installation, video, sound, performance, sculpture or drawing. He approaches his work as an effort toward better understanding identity, where it comes from, dynamics that influence it, how we use it in reaction to social structures and the relationships that benefit or become strained by it. Past work includes socially challenging themes such as destruction of cultural heritage and identity, identity in social media, disaster, abuse of power, civil liberties, economics, and death. Each idea is presented via installation, video, sound, performance, sculpture or drawing and is often structured as my own visual defense mechanism, perhaps light-hearted and with a sense of humor to aid in my comprehension of complex topics. Whereas the disaster may also be a playground, civil liberties a carnival game or intimate internal structures becoming external architecture. He regards the work as a series of questions to begin larger dialogues. The work has been exhibited at museums, galleries and universities in The United States, China, South Korea, Colombia, Denmark. Gilbert has been awarded international grants to produce work in the United States, Denmark and Columbia and has been reviewed in such publications as ArtForum, Artillery, Hyperallergic, The Huffington Post and Sculpture Magazine.
© James Gilbert | Artist Biography, Artworks & Gallery | www.jamesgilbertstudio.com
