Viridian Artists is delighted to present a show of recent work by Wally Gilbert, a Nobel Prize winning molecular biologist (Chemistry, 1980, for rapid DNA sequencing),. His digital photographs demonstrate the artist’s dexterity at finding striking images in the details of the world around us. Gilbert creates pictures with strong colors, often focusing the camera on small elements that when enlarged create images that are simultaneously abstract and representational. His work demonstrates his fascination with form, color, and texture. The show consists of 19” x 13” images drawn from the world and 36” x 24” face-mounted images of ballet dancers in rehearsal.

The 19” x 13” images, printed on matte paper, were taken with a small digital camera that Gilbert always carries with him. Many of these are still lives or details of architecture or plant material that the artist saw in travels abroad and in this country. These pictures exploit the play of natural light across the objects to produce haunting results.

A Madrid bullfight series has images suffused with the color, tension, and motion of the conflict between the Matador and the bull. Low-resolution images from a small camera, stretched to its limit, catch the swirling of the capes and bodies of the men and the leaping and charging of the bulls.

Images of the dancers from the Boston Ballet capture them behind the scenes in working rehearsals as they joyously practice their movements. Other pictures find moments of extreme beauty as the dancers work in the final dress rehearsals in full costume. A large SLR, the Cannon EOS 5D, captured the rapid movement in low light.

Two ten foot canvas hangings show composite images of flying and falling bodies reflected in a pool of water, dramatic presentations created in the computer.

Wally Gilbert had a long career as a Molecular Biologist. Now he is following a new passion in creating visual art. He has had sixteen one-person shows, including a curated show at the Massachusetts College of Art in 2004 and a major installation in Warsaw and Lodz last year.