Gerald Lovell’s work is currently on view in What Is Left Unspoken, Love through August 14.
Gerald Lovell is an Atlanta-based artist whose subjects include members of his community of friends and family. The realism of Lovell’s work results both from its basis in photographs he has taken and from the ease of his subjects who are enjoying downtime together in relaxed social environments. The bond of trust they share with each other and with the artist has enabled them to let down their guard and project a sense of affection for one another devoid of any affectation or self-interest. They are pictured in the moment, enjoying one another’s companionship. The artist’s cohort, perhaps more keenly than earlier generations, feels the pressures of financial insecurity, social and political strife, and environmental uncertainty. In a world where the deck seems stacked against them, they coalesce around each other in peace, camaraderie, and friendship made palpably real by Lovell’s technique, which uses impasto to suggest the soft, vulnerable substance of the flesh and blood that binds them together.
