Gilbert Hsiao, Painting (US)

Born 1956, Easton, Pennsylvania
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Gilbert Hsiao was born in America in 1956. He grew up in the midwestern state of Indiana and came to study art history in New York City at Columbia University. He is a self-taught practitioner of hard edged, abstract painting who names music and the psychology of perception as chief influences in the development of his work.

For nearly thirty years, Hsiao has explored the mechanics of visual perception. His paintings of the past decade are characterized by their use of intricately overlaid, exacting stripes of color. Recently, he has been experimenting with shaped panels which create an active, continuously shifting surface, with no traditional sense of top or bottom, left or right. Hsiao new paintings seem to simultaneously defy both the eye and one’s sense of gravity.

Unlike much reductive, pattern-based painting, however, Hsiao approaches his practice spontaneously and makes each painting intuitively. In other words, Hsiao’s paintings are not executed according to a predetermined plan, but rather are the sum of a series of improvised decisions. Similarly, the hanging of much of this work is similarly spontaneous; works are oriented according to the spaces in which they are to be displayed. Thus the same painting can be hung differently in different environments.

After 30 years in Brooklyn, NY, USA, Gilbert Hsiao (b. 1956, USA) now lives and works in Berlin, Germany. His work has been exhibited internationally, including the United States, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, and Germany. He recently mounted solo exhibitions at Gallery Sonja Roesch (Houston), dr julius | ap (Berlin) and MINUS SPACE (Brooklyn). Recent group exhibitions include P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center / MoMA (New York), McKenzie Fine Art (New York), IS Projects (Leiden, The Netherlands), Sydney Non Objective (Australia), and Gesellschaft für Kunst und Gestaltung (Bonn). Hsiao was awarded a Fellowship in Painting from the New York Foundation for the Arts in 2008. His work is included in a number of public, corporate, and private collections worldwide.

One Person Shows

2010 dr. jullius | ap, "Light Noise," Berlin, Germany
2009 "Shape/Anti-Shape," Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX
2006 "2 Kinds of Vinyl," Minus Space Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2004 Tower 49, New York, NY
1989 Tomoko Liguori Gallery, New York, NY
1986 White Columns, New York, NY

Group Shows

2010 "Escape from New York," The Engine Room, Massey University, Wellington, New
Zealand
"Beyond Painting," Gallerie Lausberg, Toronto, Canada

2009 "1/1……1/100, Editions from Germany, the Netherlands, and Switzerland," Gesellschaft
für Kunst und Gestaltung, Bonn, Germany
"Open Space for Butterflies," Minus Space, Brooklyn, NY
"Escape from New York," Project Space Spare Room, RMIT University, Melbourne,
Australia
"SNO 51, " Sydney Non Objective, Sydney, Australia,
"Kosmos," IS Projects, Leyden, Netherlands
"Linear Abstraction," McKenzie Fine Art, New York, NY
"It's a Wonderful Life," Sideshow Gallery, New York, NY

2008 "Gegenstandlos: 200 Artists from 18 Countries"
Gesellschaft fur Kunst und Gestaltung,
Bonn, Germany
"Minus Space," PS 1 Contemporary Art Center. MOMA, New York, NY
"A Tribute to Esphyr Solobodkina," Painting Center, New York, NY
"The Speed of Color," IS Projects, Leyden, Netherlands
"Machine Learning," Gallery Sonja Roesch, Houston, TX
"Peace," Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2007 "Machine Learning," Painting Center, New York, NY,
"Machine Learning," St. Mary's College, St Mary's City, Maryland;
"17th Invitational Salon of Small Works", New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA
"Students of John Laska," Ivy Technologial College, Terre Haute, IN
"Optical Edge," Pratt Manhattan Gallery, New York, NY
"War is Over Again," Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2006 "Optical Perception," Corridor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
"Inaugural Show," Ober Gallery, Kent, Connecticut
"16th Invitational Salon of Small Works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA
"Presentational Painting III", Hunter College Graduate Gallery, New York, NY
"Minimalisms," Gallery W 52, New York, NY

2006 "Brooklyn," Westport Arts Center, Westport, CT
"War is Over," Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2005 "Movement," Hudson Guild, New York, NY
"Project Diversity," Museum for Contemporary African Diaspora Arts, Brooklyn, NY
"15th Invitational Salon of Small Works, New Arts Program, Kutztown, PA

2004 "Merry," Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
"All the Numbers I Know," Rotunda Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
"Thought Patters/Patterns and Ideas in Recent Painting and Drawing," Kent Place School, Summit, NJ

2003 "Arc," Sideshow, Brooklyn, NY

"Peace," Sideshow, Brooklyn, NY
"Twenty-fifth Anniversary Show," Drawing Center, New York, NY
"Round and Rounded," Cono Restraunt, Brooklyn, NY
2001 "Paint," Gallery The, Brooklyn, NY

2000 "From The Flatfiles: Artists from Pierogi 2000", Bennington College, Bennington, VT

1989 New Museum Benefit, New York, NY
Debra Sharpe Gallery, New York, NY
Tomoko Liguori Gallery, New York, NY

1988 Tomoko Liguori Gallery, New York, NY
New Museum Benefit, New York, NY
White Columns/International Gallery Invitational, New York, NY

1987 White Columns, New York, NY
Tomoko Liguori Gallery, New York, NY
Asian American Arts Institute, New York, NY
Soho Center for Visual Arts, New York, NY
Museum of Modern Art Advisory Council (traveling Exhibition)

1986 "Greenberg's Dilemma," Loughelton Gallery, New York, NY
"Small Works," Borgenicht Gallery, New York, NY
Henry Street Settlement, New York, NY
Debra Sharpe Gallery, New York, NY
"Living in America," New York Public Library, Tompkins Square Park, New York, NY
Catherine Street Gallery, New York