Upcoming Exhibition February 23rd – March 23rd, 2014 Opening Reception: February, 23. 5-7PM
Jeffrey Gibson’s paintings and sculptures are inspired by the traditional craft and modern arts of Native American cultures. His sense of pride and desire to reclaim ownership of these histories counter the potentially negative connotations of craft that has been placed onto Native American Art, situating his work within the pantheon of abstract modernism.The ironing board – a patented product in the United States by 1892 – was designed to provide the average person with pristinely pressed clothing. It quickly became a symbol of the home and the gendered role within it. Gibson removes the board’s stand and mounts it on the wall, replaces its traditional protective cover with painted rawhide – transforming the domestic object into a Shield.
Shield. No. 12, 2013
Elk hide over antique ironing board, acrylic paint, graphite
Likewise, the Everlast punching bag, which first emerged in a military context, is now recognized as a symbol of masculinity. Gibson replaces the covering of the punching bags with heavily adorned wool blankets and some with his own repurposed paintings. His use of glass beads, jingles, fringe and metal studs collectively express “sub-cultural and fashion alternatives to the mainstream that signal defiance and rejection of hetero-normative culture”.
Can You Feel It?Found vinyl punching bag, repurposed wool blanket, glass beads, tin jingles, artificial sinew, acrylic paint, steel hardware
American Girl, Found punching bag, wool blankets, glass beads, steel studs, artificial sinew, tin jingles, chain
Gender neutrality is implied in these normally gendered materials. The viewer is left to their emotional relationship to the artwork, a fusion of abstract elements and symbols that force the viewer to question the hybrid norms of our time. These qualities are embodied in Gibson’s new figurative sculptures. Standing between three to four feet tall, these hyper-adorned figures exude both fetishism and beauty.
Temptation, 2013
Antique shaving mirror, deer hide, artificial sinew, acrylic paint
All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, 2013
Antiques hand mirror, Deer Hide, acrylic paint, artificial sinew
This Place I Know, 2013
Elk hide, Acrylic Paint, Graphite, Colored Pencil
About Jeffrey Gibson:
Gibson attended The Art Institute of Chicago (BFA) and The Royal College of Art, UK (MA). He is half-Cherokee, a member of The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and was raised in the United States, Germany, and South Korea. Gibson’s artworks are in the permanent collections of many major art museums, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, and the Denver Art Museum. In 2013 he had one-person exhibitions at The ICA Boston, National Academy Museum NYC, and the Rollins Museum. In 2014 he will have a one-person exhibit at The Denver Museum of Art.
To know more about the artist go: HERE
To know more about MARC STRAUS visit their website: www.marcstraus.com
All images courtesy of MARC STRAUSS
