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  • A Gentle Sort of Restlessness, 2025, wood, stain, ink, metal, wax, 18 x 27 x 19 inches
  • A Gentle Sort of Restlessness
    These carved wood sculptures, I reflect on the meaning and purpose of archaeological artifacts, distorting the messages intended for future generations. Through intertwined forms, mismatched proportions, and deliberate imbalances, I contemplate complexities of human experience—tragedy, ecstasy, doom, and conflict—merging opposing perspectives within each work. The intentional misdirection considers the effort required for honest self-reflection, while the deliberate, uncomplicated marks from chisels and hand tools emphasize the imperfections in the wood and joinery, commemorating humanity’s flaws. By crafting playful yet deceptive objects, I aim to obscure straightforward interpretations. This project addresses themes of ancestry, shared history, and revisionism, challenging the ways we perceive and decipher our inherited narratives and collective past.

    I maintain that you can hold and believe opposing perspectives and truths in your mind at the same time. It may look one way but it may be the other: Grab, push, pull, embrace, struggle, desire, revulsion, conflict, share, heartache, guilt, shame, challenge, confrontation, aggression, affection, clash, combative, touching, adoration, lust, passion, yearn, tenderness, infatuation, admiration, clasp, feel, connection, coupling, menace and all psychological concerns.




  • _MG_8153RT_web Since the Beginning Until the End by Shifts of Fortune, 2025, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 43 x 25 x 15 inches
  • _MG_8158RT_web
    Since the Beginning Until the End by Shifts of Fortune, 2025, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 43 x 25 x 15 inches
    _MG_8159RT_web
    Since the Beginning Until the End by Shifts of Fortune, 2025, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 43 x 25 x 15 inches
  • _MG_7949_RT_web You Can Hold Both Ideas in Your Head at the Same Time, 2024, wood, metal, stain, ink, varnish, wax, 15 x 28 x 15 inches
  • _MG_7900_RT_web You Can Hold Both Ideas in Your Head at the Same Time, 2024, wood, metal, stain, ink, varnish, wax, 15 x 28 x 15 inches
  • _MG_8032RTweb Decisions We Make Take Meet, 2025, wood, stain, ink, metal, wax, 23 x 24 x 17 inches
  • _MG_8017RTweb Decisions We Make Take Meet, 2025, wood, stain, ink, metal, wax, 23 x 24 x 17 inches
  • _MG_7942_RT_web A Close Bond of Affection and Mutual Assistance, 2024, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 13 x 27 x 17inches
  • _MG_8488RT In this Moment We have No Distance, 2025, wood , stain, varnish, wax, 16 x 27 x 14 inches
  • _MG_8460RT
    In this Moment We have No Distance, 2025, wood , stain, varnish, wax, 16 x 27 x 14 inches
    _MG_8462RT
    In this Moment We have No Distance, 2025, wood , stain, varnish, wax, 16 x 27 x 14 inches
  • _MG_8487RT Nothing Less Splendid would have Wilted a Gentle Heart, 2025, wood, stain, varnish, wax, 13 x 25 x 13 inches
  • _MG_8466RT
    Nothing Less Splendid would have Wilted a Gentle Heart, 2025, wood, stain, varnish, wax, 13 x 25 x 13 inches
    _MG_8468RT
    Nothing Less Splendid would have Wilted a Gentle Heart, 2025, wood, stain, varnish, wax, 13 x 25 x 13 inches
  • _MG_7931_RT_web There is Nothing Good or Bad Except by Comparison, 2024, wood, metal, stain, ink, varnish, wax, 18 x 24 x 18 inches
  • _MG_8061RT_web Self-Described as if too Often the Case, 2025, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 28 x 13 x 12 inches
  • _MG_8058RT_web
    Self-Described as if too Often the Case, 2025, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 28 x 13 x 12 inches
    _MG_8056RT_web
    Self-Described as if too Often the Case, 2025, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 28 x 13 x 12 inches
  • _MG_7957_RT_web The Relentless Unforeseen, 2024, wood, metal, stain, ink, varnish, wax, 12 x 23 x 18 inches
  • _MG_7924_RT_web The Relentless Unforeseen, 2024, wood, metal, stain, ink, varnish, wax, 12 x 23 x 18 inches
  • _MG_7952_RT_web I'd Say There Was Some Remorse but Also Humor, 2024, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 21 x 14 x 18inches
  • _MG_7916_RT_web
    I'd Say There Was Some Remorse but Also Humor, 2024, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 21 x 14 x 18inches
    _MG_7918_RT_web
    I'd Say There Was Some Remorse but Also Humor, 2024, wood, metal, stain, varnish, wax, 21 x 14 x 18inches
  • _MG_8024RT_web The Importance of Discomfort, 2025, wood, stain, metal, wax, 14 x 22 x 16 inches
  • _MG_7966_RT_web How We Meet and Why It Matters, 2024, wood, metal, stain, ink, varnish, wax, 16 x 22 x 24 inches
  • _MG_7964_RT-web How We Meet and Why It Matters, 2024, wood, metal, stain, ink, varnish, wax, 16 x 22 x 24 inches
  • _MG_7881_RT_web The Unfinished Burden, 2024, wood, metal, ink, varnish, wax, 21 x 18 x 14inches
  • _MG_7884_RT_web The Unfinished Burden, 2024, wood, metal, ink, varnish, wax, 21 x 18 x 14inches
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    A Gentle Sort of Restlessness, 2025, wood, stain, ink, metal, wax, 18 x 27 x 19 inches
    _MG_7999RTweb
    A Gentle Sort of Restlessness, 2025, wood, stain, ink, metal, wax, 18 x 27 x 19 inches
  • _MG_8002RTweb A Gentle Sort of Restlessness, 2025, wood, stain, ink, metal, wax, 18 x 27 x 19 inches
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  • How Much Earth For Sale?,2022
earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint
  • How Much Earth For Sale?
    Building with rammed earth is the one of the oldest techniques. Civilizations have historically relied on earth as an available material - it is durable, cost effective with minimal environmental impact.

    How Much Earth is for Sale? is conceived as a monument, even for those with whom we disagree. We have become a nation of judgmental provocateurs, leveraging social media platforms to saturate the popular zeitgeist with superficiality, while evading taking responsibility on what’s at stake: access to justice, historical redress, environmental disasters, and racial inequity. We are spurring divisions and conflicts within our communities and households.

    A staple of federal and state cases related to Native American land title for 200 years is Johnson v. M'Intosh, 21 U.S. (7 Wheat.) 543 (1823). The landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court held that private citizens could not purchase lands from Native Americans. The legal result was that the only conveyances executing valid transfers of land title ownership with Native Americans were the one transacted with the Federal Government: creating a system of monopoly, annihilating free market-style biddings and enabling the acquisition of Native American lands at the lowest possible cost.

    The home frame replicates that of a Monopoly board-game piece and the lines of the home painted in ‘warning and safety’ color orange.
  • James Gilbert How Much Earth For Sale How Much Earth For Sale?, 2022, earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint 11 x 14 x 6 feet
  • James Gilbert How Much Earth For Sale How Much Earth For Sale?, 2022, earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint 11 x 14 x 6 feet
  • James Gilbert How Much Earth For Sale How Much Earth For Sale?, 2022, earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint 11 x 14 x 6 feet
  • James Gilbert How Much Earth For Sale How Much Earth For Sale?, 2022, earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint 11 x 14 x 6 feet
  • James Gilbert How Much Earth For Sale How Much Earth For Sale?, 2022, earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint 11 x 14 x 6 feet
  • James Gilbert How Much Earth For Sale How Much Earth For Sale?, 2022, earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint 11 x 14 x 6 feet
  • IMG_9249James Gilbert How Much Earth For Sale How Much Earth For Sale?, 2022, earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint 11 x 14 x 6 feet
  • James Gilbert How Much Earth For Sale How Much Earth For Sale?, 2022, earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint 11 x 14 x 6 feet
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  • Heirloom, 2023, wood, stain, paint, wax, metal, c-clamps, antique furniture, 75 x 95 x 47 inches
  • I Don't Know, You Don't Know, They Don't Know
    With the abundance of mash-ups, fake news, and half-truths circulating, as a culture we can’t sort and evaluate the information we see fast enough to understand it. In response, I turned my research to archeological and archetypal symbols. History etched in stone is less mutable than its digital counterpart, though human behavior remains consistent. Throughout history we’ve seen the impervious systematic destruction of heritage by the power of ideological reasoning and self-serving political agendas. While the stories we have to guide us now are too tied to personal agenda to guide us, the ancestral truths and connective longevity foraged from our ancestors, tell tales of life, death, love, friendship, war, peace, sex and freedom. What is the legacy of contradicting ideologies in education and culture? How can we reconcile a dangerously forgetful history? Who knows what are the right questions to ask?
  • James Gilbert Hollow the Bone Hollow the Bone, 2021, wood, paint, stain, wax, metal, 47 x 11 x 10 inches
  • James Gilbert Short Attention Span Short Attention Span, 2024, wood, stain, pigmented wax, metal 25 x 12 x 11 1/2 inches
  • james_gilbert_we did this to oursleves We Did this to Ourselves, 2020, wood, stain, pigmented wax 37 x 28 x 25 inches
  • James Gilbert Are We Taking the Same Risks Are We Taking the Same Risks, 2023, wood, stain, wax, metal, 34x13x16inches
  • james_gilbert_kneel Kneel, 2020, wood, stain, pigmented wax 20 x 22 x 22 inches
  • James Gilbert There are Those that are More Equal Than Others There are Those that are More Equal Than Others, 2021, wood, stain, wax, 37 x 10 x 11 inches
  • James Gilbert For the First Time I Really Saw Beyond the Appearances For the First Time I Really Saw Beyond the Appearances, 2017-23, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 18x15x13inches
  • RT_MG_6617_web The Authority, 2021, wood, paint, stain, pigmented wax, metal, 19 x 18 x 17 inches
  • James Gilbert The Great Migration and Age of Exploration The Great Migration and Age of Exploration, 2019 wood, stain, paint, pigmented wax, 68 x 19 x 13 inches
  • James Gilbert My Sense of Humor is Complicated by My Personality, My Sense of Humor is Complicated by My Personality, 2019, wood, paint, stain, lacquer, pigmented wax, found chair, 44 x 36 x 28inches
  • James Gilbert Are We a Nation of These? Are We a Nation of These? 2021, Dimension variable (16 x 30 x 63inches - shown) 100 unique fingers on plinths, wood, paint, stain, ink, wax, magnet
  • James Gilbert Evening Would Bring Its Familiar Strangeness Evening Would Bring Its Familiar Strangeness, 2022, wood, stain, metal, wax, 10 1/2 x 30 x 13 inches
  • James Gilbert The Thing you are Looking for is the Thing you Weren't Looking For The Thing you are Looking for is the Thing you Weren't Looking For, 2021, wood, stain, wax, 31 x 11 x 12 inches
  • James Gilbert Please Wait Patiently Please Wait Patiently, 2021, wood, paint, stain, wax, 34 x 15 x 12 inches
  • james_gilbert_the conscience of the nation must be roused The Conscience of the Nation Must be Roused, 2020, wood, stain, pigmented wax 25 x 7 x 19 inches
  • The Act of Generosity and War, 2019, wood, paint, stain, lacquer, pigmented wax, metal, plastic, 53 x 15 x 15inches The Act of Generosity and War, 2019, wood, paint, stain, lacquer, pigmented wax, metal, plastic, 53 x 15 x 15inches
  • James Gilbert Looted Objects are too Valuable that is Why We Can't Return Them Looted Objects are too Valuable that is Why We Can't Return Them, 2021, wood, paint, stain, wax, 19 x 7 1/2 x 9 inches
  • james_gilbert _does not begin and end the way we seem Does Not Begin and End the Way We See, 2020, wood, stain, pigmented wax 32 x 22 x 25 inches
  • _MG_6534_RT_WEB I Don't Know How to be Everything to Everyone, 2020, wood, stain, pigmented wax, 18 1/2 x 11 x 9 inches
  • James Gilbert How Can I Blame You When it's Me I can't Forgive How Can I Blame You When it's Me I can't Forgive, 2021, wood, stain, wax, 25 x 8 x 7 inches
  • What We are Proposing What We Are Proposing, 2020, wood, stain, pigmented wax, dyed rope, found metal chair, vinyl 52 x 20 x 20 inches
  • James Gilbert It Must be Obvious There is Contradiction It Must be Obvious There is Contradiction, 2021, wood, paint, stain, wax, 28 x 12 x 10 inches
  • James Gilbert Suggestibility is a Tendency to Believe Suggestibility is a Tendency to Believe, 2019, wood, paint, pigmented wax, metal, 33 x 22 x 10inches
  • James Gilbert Like the Best Kept Secret That's Not Even a Secret Like the Best Kept Secret That's Not Even a Secret, 2019, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 31 x 13 x13 inches
  • James Gilbert Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence Absence of Evidence is Not Evidence of Absence, 2019, wood, paint, pigmented wax, metal, 42 x 26 x14inches
  • James Gilbert Misinterpreted Memories About Oneself Misinterpreted Memories About Oneself, 2019, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 42 x 12 x 12 inches
  • chair-two-legs-RT WEB The Fictional Analogy of Death, Love, Friendship, War, Peace and Sex, 2019, wood, paint, stain, lacquer, pigmented wax, metal, found chair, 39 x 19 x 78inches
  • IMG_0518_RT_web More Than Intelligence is Wisdom, 2020, wood, stain, wax, 16 x 19 x 10 inches
  • James Gilbert All the Pleasures of Beauty and Beneficience All the Pleasures of Beauty and Beneficience, 2019, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 33 x 18 x 17inches
  • _MG_7500_RT_web Without Beauty, Love or Danger it Would Almost be Easy to Live, 2018, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 16 x 11 x 16 inches
  • James Gilbert A Reasonable Alternative Solution to Admire Our Problems A Reasonable Alternative Solution to Admire Our Problems, 2019, wood, paint, pigmented wax, metal, 57 x 17 x 10inches
  • _MG_6517RT-WEB The Problem and the Solution, 2020, wood, stain, paint, pigmented wax, magnet 13 3/4 x 4 x 4 inches
  • IMG_3740 We'll all be Ghosts to Someone at Some Point, 2018, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 35 x 11 x 11inches
  • single-purple-bent-head-RT-WEB Weight of Evidence was Overwhelming, 2018, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 20 x12 x 10inches
  • salmon-guy-RT-WEB Culprit, 2019, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 29 x 14 x 10inches
  • purple-head-RT-WEB The Beauty of Death is Presence, 2018, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 23 x 10 x 13inches
  • James Gilbert Untilted, 2022, Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored pencil on paper, 52 x84inches
  • James Gilbert _MG_6719RT_web The Circumstances, 2022, Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored pencil on paper, 52x 42inches
  • James Gilbert Untilted, 2022, Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored pencil on paper, 52x42inches
  • James Gilbert _MG_6720RT_web Where Does I and We Begin, 2022, Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored pencil on paper, 52x42inches
  • James Gilbert Untilted, 2022, Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored pencil on paper, 52x42inches
  • James Gilbert Untilted, 2022, Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored pencil on paper, 52 x42inches
  • James Gilbert _MG_7259 Untilted, 2022, Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored pencil on paper, 52 x42inches
  • James Gilbert many-faces_horizontal_ Unknown, 2022, Gouache, watercolor, ink, colored pencil on paper, 14x11inches each
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  • Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature
  • Arrogance & Evidence
    I have been examining the systematic destruction of culturally significant architecture and environments - attempts to destroy cultural heritage and the relationship to place therefore devastating familial history. My research has led me to the necessary protection of buildings and ecosystems during equally culpable historical periods of war or natural disasters and climate change. There is an opposition between scientific evidence and arrogant denial. The abstract use of sandbags function as a protection but also as a long-term symbolic representation of what they are protecting. Here, digitally printed wallpaper was made from photographing colorful variations of hand-dyed and sewn pink and orange canvas sandbags. They have the appearance of a theatrical backdrop behind a deep trench dug into the earth. An intentionally manufactured illusion between artifice and reality. I see these barriers having several functions depending on point of view: the wall serves as a physical environmental defense with a trench often used during martial operations; visitors can actively climb into the immersive trench including themselves within the protective barrier. Or, the colorful printed backdrop and hole create an out of place sense of imagined theatre. This project is on-going and to be created site specifically in other forms in outdoor environments and within interior spaces.
  • James Gilbert Arrogance & Evidence Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature
  • James Gilbert Arrogance & Evidence Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature
  • James Gilbert Arrogance & Evidence Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature
  • James Gilbert Arrogance & Evidence Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature
  • James Gilbert Arrogance & Evidence Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature
  • James Gilbert Arrogance & Evidence Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature, wood chips, man made environment
  • James Gilbert Arrogance & Evidence Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature, wood chips, man made environment
  • James Gilbert Arrogance & Evidence Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature, wood chips, man made environment
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  • A Gentle Sort of Restlessness, 2025, wood, stain, ink, metal, wax, 18 x 27 x 19 inches
  • How Much Earth For Sale?,2022
earth, concrete, wood, metal, paint
  • Heirloom, 2023, wood, stain, paint, wax, metal, c-clamps, antique furniture, 75 x 95 x 47 inches
  • Arrogance & Evidence, 2019, vinyl, wood, rope, nature
  • Truth and Reason, 2017, wood, paint, pigmented wax, 9 x 28 x 10inches
  • A Historic Point of Interest and Other Landmarks, 2016 (installation view) hand-dyed canvas, wood, paint, marble, dimensions variable
  • There's Fragility in Protecting What You Have, 2016, wood, varnish, wax, acrylic paint, 26 x 44 x 11 inches
  • Destroyed #1 by James Gilbert
  • One Blank Round (detail), 2015, 8x8x8 feet, hand-dyed canvas, polyester rope, wood, paint, metal
  • 1968, 2013, 35 x 92 x 40 inches, hydrocal, pigment, wax, wood, varnish
  • Rough Trader, 2012 James Gilbert
  • My Pervy Bone, 2013, 8 1/4 x 18 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches, found chewed bone, neon, wood, varnish, electronics
  • WrestlingShoes2_2741
  • Social Foreclosure 1_1276_james_gilbert
  • Warnings & Instructions (Fun Raft of Medusa), 2010, 9 x 12 x 14 feet, plastic, thread, wood, paint
  • Worker (detail) 2011, 10 x 20 x 60 feet, found fabric
  • james gilbert
  • ClothesHomePage9437_467.m James Gilbert