| Bone MealFebruary 12, 2009- March 14, 2009Reception: February 12, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Gibbons’ action begins in the center of each painting, but continues in unseen anarchy not contained by the borders of a traditional frame. By cutting fiberboard to fit the exact outline of each work, the artists’ carnival of spontaneous characters are free to erupt, wildly gesturing, exploding in an only slightly ordered chaos.
Intertwining the candy colored frenetics of Peter Saul, the lowbrow humor of Peter Bagge with Gibbon’s penchant for iconography reminiscent of Dutch painter Hieronymus Bosch, Gibbons echoes contemporary society’s propensity towards over-stimulation. Debauchery, hedonism and mankind’s consent moral failings tangle in a multitude of simple forces at odds with each other. Looking out at the viewer from a flat pictorial space Gibbons’ creations exude promise and desire without ever being able to deliver.
The subjects in his work reflect conflicted characters, frightening yet humorous, part human and part monster. At once childlike and sexually deviant, these new works create an experience that at first seems familiar yet demands your full attention, challenging one to stop, think and process that which overwhelms. Inspired by subversive cultural influences which shift complacency, the artist suspends comfort while at the same time offers up recognizable symbols and images. With this dynamic tension drawing us in, Gibbons bombards the viewer with a stream of raw, violent, deadly, and sexually charged imagery in classic Post Modern satirical form.
Gibbons’ “Bone Meal” will travel to The New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, opening August 2 of 2009. The Artist’s work is prominently featured in “Pictopia”, a major exhibition at the House of World Culture in Berlin, Germany, opening March 2009. His work is in the collections of the McDonough Museum, Youngstown, OH, The New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, CT, and The Pigozzi Collection, New York, among others. In 2008, Gibbons work has been featured in the Baltimore Sun, Hi Fructose Magazine, Beasts! Book Two by Jacob Covey, Modern Design Magazine, and New American Paintings.
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