Marking Demetrius Wilson's sixth career solo, and second with Half Gallery, Light in a Dark Mirror is formed around Demetrius's fascination with human psychological "darkness" and how we carry it through life. Being that we start & end in "the dark," he argues it must be true that we carry some form of it with us always, almost like an underpainting. He proves this in the ways we are often attracted to destruction, violence, and pain: watching a building burn or following professional fighting. While we ultimately gravitate towards beauty and light - by no means is the show meant to feel melancholic - it's evident there is a grey area between attraction and destruction. Demetrius insists this contradiction is actually necessary, however. What is beauty without suffering? What is light without darkness? No rainbows without a storm. Everything exists in the same space because it's supposed to.
The paintings then illustrate this conflict. The artist states, "Everything is on fire. The colors burn brightly, confronting each other, maybe even offending each other." But that's the point: to see the beauty in the clash.
