james gilbert

Lives and works in Los Angeles

Artist statement

I make sculpture because I cannot accept easy explanations for human behavior. It rarely reveals itself all at once. It unfolds through experience, contradiction, memory, misunderstanding, and time. The more closely I observe it, the more I believe that understanding is earned through attention rather than assumed through certainty. My current hand-carved wooden figures begin with recognizable bodies and then disrupt them through mismatched proportions, extra or missing limbs, exposed joints, repairs, and deliberate imbalance. A gesture can suggest affection or violence, support or restraint. The figures have no fixed identities, relationships, or intentions. They remain familiar enough to invite interpretation while making certainty difficult to sustain. I am compelled by awkwardness because it interrupts expectation. Humor can coexist with grief. A repaired object can reveal more through its scars than through an appearance of perfection. Chisel marks, seams, alterations, and other evidence of making remain visible; they are not flaws to conceal but part of how the work is understood. Wood is central because it carries its own history of growth, damage, handling, alteration, and repair. Color, humor, and awkward beauty act as a visual defense mechanism, creating curiosity before more difficult questions emerge. Across my practice, I return to the same problem: how do we construct meaning from incomplete evidence, and what gives one interpretation authority over another?...

Artwork