Anne Gilman

Anne Gilman is a Brooklyn-born artist working in varying formats that include large-scale drawings and multi-panel projects.  Using pencils, inks, and layers of pigment, she writes, redacts, draws, and orders the range of experiences encountered as she works. The resulting drawings are a mapping of information, thought and emotion.

Gilman’s work has been shown nationally & internationally, including solo exhibitions at Casa Cristo in Mexico and Galería Raúl Martínez in Cuba. Recent solo exhibitions include In any one day, how all the things get mixed together at Five Points Gallery in Torrington in CT and Descifrar: to decipher, decode, figure out at Instituto Cervantes in NY.

Gilman has received fellowships and awards from the Edward Albee Foundation, The MacDowell Colony, Chenven Foundation and most recently from Two Trees Cultural Space Subsidy Program for her commitment to community outreach. Her work has been featured in Bomb Magazine, Guernica Magazine, Publishing Perspectives, Prattfolio, and the Spanish-language magazine Literal and included in collections at The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Brooklyn Museum, New York Public Library, Azerbaijan Museum, and Library of Congress.

She teaches in the graduate and undergraduate programs at Pratt Institute and is currently preparing for a solo show at Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center outside of Detroit.

All images and statements courtesy of the artist

Up close / in the distance / now  (text side), 2018
pencil, graphite, tape, ink, matte medium on mulberry paper
340 x 38 inches

I often combine text and non-text sections in a drawing. The words show my thinking and analyzing ideas and the non-text areas interpret sensations through the tactile experience of my drawing materials: pencils, broken pieces of metal, sticks, pigment and paint. In this piece I deliberately separated those two approaches to be seen as distinct interpretations of experiences.

Up close / in the distance / now (non-text side), 2018
pencil, graphite, tape, ink, matte medium on mulberry paper
340 x 38 inches

Conflict of interest, 2018
pencil, graphite, matte medium, tape on mulberry paper
This configuration, 20½ x 40 inches

This is a two-sided drawing where the ink soaking through the paper influenced the opposing side of the work. The final presentation of this piece shows the scroll rolled, deliberately leaving much of the drawing inaccessible.

You might wait forever, 2018
pencil, graphite, ink, Bic pen, tape on paper
60 x 106½ inches

The text in my drawing is extemporaneous writing in Spanish and English with certain keywords or phrases that point to a particular theme for that work.

The areas of covered text are parts that I decided were extraneous or of no interest to me.  This drawing was made after a protracted illness so much of the text is referencing a reorganizing of priorities.

You might wait forever, DETAIL, 2018
pencil, graphite, ink, BIC pen, tape on paper
60 x 106½ inches

Boiling point, 2018
pencil, graphite, ink, pastel, matte medium on mulberry paper
46 x27 inches

A part of the writing in this drawing focuses on issues of anger and rage. I was thinking about the levels of discontent that people live with whether triggered by relatively insignificant incidents or by a buildup of frustration over time, and the need for an appropriate outlet to diffuse and address the intensity before it erupts in explosive ways.

A particular kind of quiet, 2017
pencil, paint, ink, graphite and tape on paper
149 x 60 inches

This is a text excerpt from one section of the drawing: “Is this filling space like what people do to pass time? like the day has to be filled with something – or else what?… And there is the butting up of two philosophies – the accomplishment-oriented point of view versus just being and not needing to do / to accomplish. So we create tasks to accomplish. problems to solve. If I stay in doing-ness I can think I am being useful.”

The dividing line, 2017
pencil, paint, and incised marks on paper
109 x 60 inches

This drawing was started in 2016 and was influenced by the disturbing events beginning with the attack at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando and continuing through the presidential election, its aftermath and the ongoing fallout that continues to affect how people navigate the dividing lines that run through so many layers of our culture.  It is one of the darker drawings I have made with much of the work abraded and buried in graphite.

The dividing line, DETAIL, 2017
pencil, paint, and incised marks on paper
109 x 60 inches

The Mastermind y lo contrario, 2014
pencil, ink, tape, bolts, acrylic box, wood shelf
56 x 88 x 13 inches

This work has 2 components, an installation of 6 columns with a “key/guide” made on the original manuscript of David Unger’s novel “The Mastermind” and a case, (sitting on the shelf,) that contains the balance of the manuscript bolted and inaccessible to the viewer.

Themes from the novel are mixed with commentary on psychological issues connected with the traits of a “mastermind” and “lo contrario,” the opposite of a mastermind, and how that relates to larger issues in life. The entire installation folds to fit into the right side of the case, resting on top of the colophon. The left side, with the bolted section, remains inaccessible to the viewer and contains what I call “the unknowns”.

The Mastermind y lo contrario, DETAIL, 2014

This view shows the case that was fabricated with a divided tray. The right side shows the colophon for the project. The entire installation folds to fit into the right side of the case, resting on top of the colophon. The left side shows bolted section of the manuscript that remains inaccessible to the viewer and contains what I call “the unknowns”.

Black Ice, DETAIL, 2012
pencil, ink, acrylic
96 x 60 inches

The writing in Black Ice is an example of how the situation I find myself in influences the direction of a drawing.  In this case, an ice storm on the first night of my residency had me considering the hidden dangers of black ice as I tried to walk to my studio. The text is about related issues of balance and equilibrium.

Floor Print (Inking and Printing), 2010

This image shows the area of the floor that I masked out and used as a matrix to roll up and print and the process of laying the paper, printing by hand, pulling the print off the inked floor. Because of the disintegration of the cement as I rolled ink, I had to repeatedly clean my roller. The entire inking and printing took 4-6 hours per print.

Edward Albee’s Floor (Installation), 2010

This image shows smaller prints I made by inking and printing the broken pieces of linoleum from the floor. At the end of the residency, I installed the prints around two of the larger inked sections. By then, I had painted other areas of the floor as part of the installation.