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Index of paintings by Stephen Gibb 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009
Stephen Gibb – Artist Statement
My artwork weaves an eclectic tapestry of cultural and social influences. At one moment it may make a single-punch-line commentary on pop culture, while the next it may construct a complex and playful panorama probing into the outer perimeters of human nature.
It is often categorized as pop surrealism but I prefer to tag it “Bubblegum Surrealism”—a kind of existential, editorial-cartoon realism—just because it sounds more intelligent, pretentious and funny at the same time. The work holds a certain reverence and faithfulness to mimicking reality but leans far enough away to fall in the shadow of the “uncanny valley”—that uneasy place where the mind is unsettled by what looks like something real but couldn’t possibly be. It is in this realm, theoretically, that the mind’s gamma waves are super-stimulated and brain activity resembles exploding fireworks. I resolve that this accounts for the compelling nature of my work. Viewers are confronted with a mind storm of mental activity to sort through and by confronting what they see with what they think, their encounter takes on a very personal experience. We are all wired differently.
My medium of choice is a traditional deployment of oil paint using time-tested painting techniques such as glazing and the occasional dalliance into chiaroscuro. The richness achieved by layers and layers of thinned oil paint on wood panels always adds an interesting luminous vitality to the final piece.
When constructing a painting, I often let a core image or concept subliminally dictate to me as to how the composition will manifest itself. Colours and characters are interwoven into a psychological landscape where the subject’s ambiguity speaks both in muted and clear tones to those who are willing to confront them head on. Nothing is written in stone, nothing is absolute except the thirst to explore ideas.
2020 Paintings