Exhibitions

Lapin Contemporary is pleased to present Ways Through, a new exhibition of drawings by Douglas Gilbert, on view October 24 through December 19, 2026, at 60 Roberts Drive, Studio 308, North Adams, MA, in the Norad Mill building. This new body of work continues Gilbert’s investigation of landscape as a space shaped by perception, interruption, and passage.

 

In Ways Through, Gilbert presents a new group of graphite and charcoal drawings in which dense, interrupted forms give way to openings that suggest refuge, direction, and the possibility of moving forward. Rather than describing a specific place, the works create spaces that feel encountered and remembered, shaped by shifts between compression and release, hesitation and possibility.

 

Gilbert’s awareness of the instabilities of the present informs the work’s underlying tension. Against a background of political polarization, racial and social division, conflict between nations, and ecological instability, the drawings translate these conditions into an experience of inward reflection. Their imagery remains deliberately open, allowing uncertainty, obstruction, and movement to operate as both visual and emotional conditions.

 

Each drawing leads the eye toward a destination that remains uncertain, one that may be approached, avoided, or passed by. Between obstruction and possibility, the works offer a place to pause, contemplate, and imagine what might lie ahead.

 

Douglas Gilbert is an American artist based in the Berkshires in western Massachusetts. His practice centers on mark-making in graphite and charcoal on paper. The work draws inspiration from nature and from ideas in quantum physics, particularly the structures, patterns, and forces that underlie what we see. Rather than describing form through conventional contour or tonal modeling, Gilbert constructs his images through thousands of visible straight lines, allowing form and space to emerge through their accumulation and intersection. His drawings move freely between figurative and abstract language, transforming observed subjects into something less fixed and more ambiguous. Through this movement between recognition and abstraction, Gilbert creates space for contemplation and connection.

 

Gilbert earned a B.F.A. in painting and a B.A. in Art History from Cornell University. Before returning his focus to his studio practice, he spent much of his professional career in graphic and web design. Visit www.douglas-gilbert.com for a full bio.