Aaron Gilbert’s paintings show people of color in urban settings and rooms. He seems to see through the walls into their lives, their domestic activities graced with tenderness yet also a weariness emphasized by light that shades purple or yellow or blue. His canvases can be quite large, capturing whole slices of an apartment building and its inner world. Gilbert was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, in 1979. He studied at Penn State and the Rhode Island School of Design, and received his MFA from Yale. Of Cuban descent, Gilbert has cited Diego Rivera and George Tooker as influences. The nine paintings in this exhibition are touched here and there with a subtle surrealism, which only deepens their poignance. —Laura Jacobs