Contemporary artist David Gant’s exhibition at The Todd Weiner Gallery plans to urge the audience’s thoughts further into the realm of abstraction. Without pushing an opinion, Gant’s developed a mixture of three-dimensional pieces positioned to “create a melody out of the sense of impending doom” the world has felt looming over head for decades. Self proclaimed participant in the news, Gant puts forth stimulus representing, hard to verbalize, big picture world issues, that he feels affected by personally. In this exhibition he is striving for an overall sensation by combining imagery for the audience to come to their own conclusions. These images include famous cultural or political figures such as: Russian President Vladimir Putin, the iconic Bozo The Clown, a representation of Isis, Hilary Clinton and more. Gant’s work speaks to the echo effect of the tension the world becomes affected by politically.
Gant explains: “Finding the human condition or the story that we cling to through all of time, the life raft of turmoil keeps us connected to people of any time and place.” Fear, used as a connecting element, has been witnessed and felt throughout centuries and cultures. The pieces here illustrate those feelings visually by the artist’s mastery of many mediums. Abstract theories and beliefs are interwoven and recognizable throughout each piece he creates from two-dimensional to three-dimensional work. The artist charges the pieces with color and playful humor to lighten the dark nature and subject they represent.
An example of this bright comical component can be found in the piece entitled “Bozo”. The iconic clown’s head sits on the wall with the bright red hair and make up along with a gaping mouth. Inside the mouth sits small baseball sized globes. Gant’s work contains a suggestively, though not actually, interactive carnival game. The freeze frame game illustrates how one would hypothetically toss the small globes into the clown’s mouth, which would fall into a strategically placed trashcan.
The whole game is representative of the “gee wiz” approach to issues being dealt with in society today, which in reality could be apocalyptic when considering the gravity of our situation. Gant does not make a joke of the real world problems, but he does effectively draw our attention to the levity of serious global crises through a unique use of humor. His choice of a game as a vehicle to do this gives an extra layer of commentary and interest.
Stylistically, Gant provides a number of visuals that confront the viewer with intense stimulus, sparking the connection of his ongoing themes. This work is an extension of paintings he developed previously that progressed into three-dimensional pieces. Here, he has applied elements of painting to his sculptures by forcing implied three-dimensionality through shape, space, and light. He highlights contradiction by overlaying two-dimensional elements onto an object that lends itself to further dimensionality, both conceptually and physically. Gant applied a forced ¾ perspective on “Putin” that drives the viewer to find the perfect viewing perspective, rather than gazing straight forward on to the head to provide a representational view of the subject. Gant describes a constant drive to get better and progress; he reveals the exploration of making art as “basically trying to capture magic.” This is merely one of the ways Gant demonstrates innovation physically and visually, creating his own magic.
Many components will provide “shock and awe” for the audience during Gant’s exhibition full of meaningful yet humorous conversation pieces, such as a large pile of “roaches” or a sizable plastic coca-cola bottle filled with a white textile. Gant refers to an artistic melody, explained as a way to “provide a sing along that the audience can connect to people throughout time, realizing the same song has been sung forever; and maybe that will change consciousness.”
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