In a visual manifestation of his process, Gardner constructs hermetic compositions realized multiple times across distinct mediums - graphite drawing, oil painting, and gouache paintings on paper.
The relationship between figure, object, and background recalls Edward Hopper's description of image making as 'imagination collaborat[ing] with memory...producing only that which is necessary.'
Gardner's faithful evocation of this landscape blocks out the horizon with a wall of grass, creating a kind of secret garden like other close quarters depicted throughout the exhibition.
These metaphors distill confined quotidian scenes into explorations of interiority; their subjects engrossed in a private world of the mind, walled off by layers of perception.
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