Karen Gibbons "A Cup of Air"

440 Gallery

poster for Karen Gibbons "A Cup of Air"

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The 440 Gallery presents A Cup of Air, whimsical new sculpture by Karen Gibbons created from found objects and photography.

"I'm going out for a cup of air," Brooklyn artist Karen Gibbons's mother would say to her five children as she stepped outside for a reprieve from the stresses of parenting. The free-standing sculpture and sculptural wall pieces in this exhibit, A Cup of Air, express that whimsical metaphor. They are playful, curious and evocative. This new body of work draws inspiration from three sources: the pastoral landscape, the Gowanus Canal neighborhood of Brooklyn, and the artist's recently rediscovered family photo archives. Gibbons ingeniously integrates photographs and found objects with an eclectic approach that combines sculpture, painting, drawing and photography in surprising ways. Delightful, unexpected contradictions arise out of the mixture of these elements. The pieces have an air of both reminiscence and anticipation, they combine the ephemeral with the enduring, and they mingle the cherished and the forbidden.

This is Gibbons's third solo show at the 440 Gallery. Over the past several years Gibbons has been developing a unique approach of combining different artistic processes. This method unites her formal training as a painter, her years of practice as a sculptor, and a more recent foray into photography. Gibbons's penchant for incorporating found elements into her work continues in this show, with found objects now taking center stage. The notion of "found" applies to photographic images, which are layered onto "found" objects. In each piece, shape, form and color are distilled until a singular image emerges from the tension between the found and the deliberate. Gibbons consolidates layers of color and texture in each piece until its shape becomes iconic, nearly symbolic. Its disparities take on a new life, and its ambiguities allow associations and references to surface for each viewer.

Media

Schedule

from February 23, 2012 to April 08, 2012

Opening Reception on 2012-02-23 from 18:00 to 21:00

Artist(s)

Karen Gibbons

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