Karen Gibbons “Domesticated”
440 Gallery
This event has ended.
An unbridled horse towers over a house; a bear lumbers through a vague unnatural landscape; a child and large bird nestle with one another: animal imagery suggests passions or instincts often subdued by our social mores. In Domesticated, Karen Gibbons’ fourth solo exhibit at 440 Gallery, these images dominate her paintings and collages, subtly provoking the tension between the tame, contained aspects of our culture and the natural animal impulses of the individual. Gibbons’ work recalls aspects of both Twombly and Chagall; as here she uses animal imagery to create an emotional narrative about self-transformation.
The painting that marks Gibbons’ pivotal foray into this series is a tribute to her late cousin. It depicts a large white horse superimposed on a house. The artist mixes photographic collage with layers of transparent acrylic paint to create a shifting, ghostlike impression. Her practice of incorporating found objects and painting over found canvases introduces the elements of chance and discovery into the work. In this series, Gibbons has used enlarged prints of old family photographs, mingling memory and emotion with the surreal and mystical. The animals - birds, horses, dogs - in all the works are symbolic, but they also refer to actual events in the artist’s life. The horse is more than a mythological symbol of freedom or passage to another world, it is the animal that fascinated and carried the artist and her cousin on its back in their childhood.
Karen Gibbons has been living and working in Brooklyn for more than 30 years, she holds a BFA from Pratt Institute, an MFA from Hunter College, and has shown her work regularly throughout New York City. Related professional experience includes painting murals, curating exhibitions, bookmaking, and teaching. Karen’s creative inspiration is informed by her other work as an art therapist, a certified yoga instructor, and as a mother of three.
[Image: Karen Gibbons, Sand Bar, acrylic and collage on hinged wood panels, 13” X 30” X 3”]
Media
Schedule
from May 08, 2014 to June 08, 2014
Several events related to the exhibition are planned, including a hands-on workshop for children.
Opening Reception on 2014-05-09 from 18:00 to 21:00