I got an email a few days ago from Gilbert Hsiao, my childhood best friend since about 4th grade at the Lab School in Terre Haute, announcing a one-man show at Minus Space in Brooklyn running through June 16th.
Gilbert has been a gifted artist since he was a kid and it is cool to see him gaining worldwide recognition now that he is in his 50s. Better late than never. I know this is supposed to be a music blog and although Gilbert is a painter, he has been a lifelong music head and is the most prolific music collector I have ever known. He really knows the good stuff. We hung out together in college during the loft years in the 70s when he attended Columbia and worked at the fabled WKCR, and have kept in touch ever since.
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| Flash I, 42" x 42", acrylic on wood panel, 2008 © Gilbert Hsiao |
Gilbert's visual art is heavily influenced by music: in his own words, "Thinking about music has been important in the development of my work. Discussing music in terms of chords, relative dissonance/consonance, rhythms, syncopation, tones, harmony, temp, movement, stillness, and loudness, and so forth, cannot begin to describe the actual experience of listening to a piece. One can describe a piece of music in detail using these characteristics, yet the description cannot take the place of the experience of the piece itself."
"The interesting part of music is the experience, not the explanation."
I discovered in his email that Gilbert received the Space Award from the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation last month, which will give him a studio residency in Brooklyn starting this fall. A lot like music, the quality of visual art expression is largely a function of how often you get to perform, and this will give Gilbert a place to perform without the economic pressures that artists of all types have to face. Good on him and thanks to the foundation for recognizing him.
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