Iron and Mixed Media Sculpture by Bert Gilbert
Exhibit Dates: May 6th–26th, 2022
Opening Reception: May 6th from 5–8 pm
For the past decade, Gilbert has built his work on the cast iron elements he produces during his intensive, annual Artist Residency at the iron casting Sculpture Trails of Solsberry, Indiana. Using recycled iron for casting, scrap and reclaimed steel on welded pieces, and repurposed, salvaged building materials in his mixed media works, Gilbert strives to understand the inherent language in the history of the recycled items.
The artist not only forms the models and creates the molds, but he also actively participates in the team pour-casting process which seminally grounds him in the works’ creation. He states: “In my recent pieces, I have been casting more and more [plastic] packing materials. This detritus of our online consumer culture, with its soft corpulent forms, seems an apt metaphor for the empty opulence of consumerism and surely a bellwether for future archaeologists defining our culture.”
For Gilbert, the past several years have brought intimate life-altering events even beyond the pandemic — deaths in the family and retirement from his construction and design business among them. Absorbed by reflection, the artist states about his show 3AM
It’s those things you think about in the middle of the night that get scraped out of the back corners of your brain. Those things with the touch of truth and a big dash of the fantastical. The worries, the dreams, the expectations, and exasperations that flitter across the back side of our eyelids and dance a manic cotillion through our restless mind.
By Hand Gallery is a locally owned, cooperative gallery that currently has 12 artisan members. By Hand Gallery has been in the Bloomington community for over 30 years and has a reputation for selling art works that are of good design and quality craftsmanship. Besides our cooperative members, there are over 70 additional artists who sell their work through By Hand Gallery.
The exhibit is free and open to the public.
WHERE:
By Hand Gallery, Inside Fountain Square Mall
101 W Kirkwood Ave, Suite 109
Bloomington, IN 47404
812.334.3255
Hours: Monday – Saturday 10:00am – 5:30pm; Sunday 12:00 – 4:00pm