Snowscape, 2023
Will Gabaldon's compositions depict natural scenarios that the artist has often experienced firsthand and reproduced on canvas from memory, blurring the outlines just like a memory.
Will Gabaldón (b. 1978 Belen, New Mexico, lives and works in Chicago) received his B.F.A. in painting from the University of New Mexico and his M.F.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to moving to Chicago, he lived and worked in Brooklyn, NY. While living in New York City, he was a painting assistant for Jeff Koons, founding member of the artist run exhibition space TSA Gallery and was actively exhibiting work in many group exhibitions in New York. He has held solo exhibitions at The Journal Gallery, New York; Galería Mascota, Mexico City; Various Small Fires, Los Angeles and Seoul; TSA Gallery, Brooklyn, New York; and Harwood Art Center, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Recent group exhibitions include Make Room, Los Angeles; Venus Over Manhattan, New York; Ackerman Clarke at NADA Miami, Florida; Sanitary Tortilla Factory, Albuquerque, New Mexico; He currently lives and paints in Chicago, Illinois with his wife and two daughters.
Will Gabaldón’s paintings depict pastoral landscapes and environments the artist has observed over time and rendered from memory. Through painterly intervention, Gabaldón’s verdant scenes are simultaneously representations of real places and manifestations of what the artist refers to as "atmospheres left in memory." The work conjures images of places both real and imagined, utilizing concise brushwork, humble palettes, and the artist's keen sense of memory. Bold brushwork is a significant element of Gabaldón’s remembered and invented landscapes. Described as the "rhythm of brushstrokes" in the artist's words, they lead the eyes to sway back and forth across the surface, creating a sense of movement and energy in the silent scenes.