Art in Lockdown: Jeffrey Gibson

27 April - 4 May 2020

- Jeffrey Gibson, Can You Feel It (installation view), 2019, Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St.
"We live in an area that used to be seasonal, but is now year round. Most of the businesses are small, independent shops. About two weeks ago most people lost their employment. Most of our employees here are in their 20s or 30s, so that’s really who their community is, and a lot of their friends lost their jobs, so I’m trying to keep everyone employed as long as I can."
- Jeffrey Gibson
  Come To My Window, 2020
  Acrylic on rawhide covered hand drums, custom frame
  25 3/4 x 47 1/4 x 4 1/2 in
  65.4 x 120 x 11.4 cm
  Series of 3 unique
Artworks
Jeffrey Gibson
STAND YOUR GROUND, 2019

"The community aspect of the studio has also changed. In many ways working online and outside of the studio feels like more work. Partially because you’re always looking for mental space to work without distractions, and there are so many distractions right now."
- Gibson with daughter Gigi Olsen-Gibson, 2020. Courtesy of the artist
- Gibson's husband Rune Olsen with son Phoenix Olsen-Gibson, 2020. Courtesy of the artist
- Work in progress (ANOTHER SIDE INSIDE OF YOU) in Gibson's studio, 2020. Courtesy of the artist
"What I keep coming back to is, we were all contributing to unsustainable practices of living. The way we were able to compartmentalize time before has changed. The edges on those compartments are blurry, they’re all spilling over into each other. Technology has been celebrated as a way to accomplish more with less time, in hopes we would use that extra time to enjoy our families, enjoy our loved ones. enjoy our friends. But what we were doing instead is filling our time with so many projects that we weren't taking advantage of the time technology could allow for."
- Gibson's son Phoenix Olsen-Gibson, 2020. Courtesy of the artist
- Gibson's husband Rune Olsen with daughter Gigi Olsen-Gibson and son Phoenix Olsen-Gibson, 2020. Courtesy of the artist
- Work in progress in Gibson's studio, 2020. Courtesy of the artist
- Jeffrey Gibson
  I’VE NEVER MET ANYONE QUITE LIKE YOU BEFORE, 2019
  Acrylic on canvas, glass beads and artificial sinew inset into custom wood frame
  82 x 74 in
  208.3 x 188 cm
- Jeffrey Gibson
  SHE KNOWS OTHER WORLDS, 2019
  Acrylic on canvas, glass beads and artificial sinew inset into custom wood frame
  82 x 74 in
  208.3 x 188 cm
"Allow whatever you're going through in life to influence you, and let down your guard enough to let those ideas rise to the surface. When I look at the works that were seminal from the AIDS pandemic, they were made form a place of emotional vulnerability. They are political, but because that person’s life was experiencing extreme adversity in the context of the world at the time. For right now, I’m just trying to allow myself to feel. This is what I do, this is who I am. Remember to draw on these strengths. We don't know what’s going to come of it. But hopefully you’re able to look back and believe it’s significant that you made these choices in this time."
- Jeffrey Gibson, Can You Feel It (installation view), 2019, Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St.
"I’ve always been fascinated with how we’ve predicted what the future is going to be like. If you make good decisions day to day, it equals good decisions over a long period of time. It’s the only way you result in stability."
- Jeffrey Gibson
  ALL I EVER WANTED ALL I EVER NEEDED, 2019
  Found canvas punching bag, glass beads, plastic beads, artificial sinew, steel studs, acrylic paint, steel chain
  85 x 20 x 20 in
  215.9 x 50.8 x 50.8 cm
- Jeffrey Gibson
  BE WITCHED BOTHERED AND BE WILDERED, 2019
  Found canvas punching bag, glass beads, plastic beads, artificial sinew, steel studs, acrylic paint, steel chain
  68 x 20 x 20 in
  172.7 x 50.8 x 50.8 cm
Artworks
Jeffrey Gibson
BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, 2019
Acrylic on canvas, glass beads and artificial sinew inset into custom wood frame
78 x 78 in
198.1 x 198.1 cm

About the Artist:

Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972, USA) combines Native American traditions with the visual languages of Modernism to explore the contemporary confluence of personal identity, culture, history, and international social narratives. Gibson is a member of the Chocktaw and Cherokee nations. He currently lives and works in Hudson, New York.

Growing up, Gibson traveled extensively with his family, living for long periods of time in Germany, Korea, and the United States. While moving from place to place, he found solace and friendship in the music scene, at various times exploring the sounds and social traditions of the punk and rave music of his generation, and the PowWow traditions of his native heritage. These influences helped him to contextualize the power of costume as objects that can transform the wearer, and helped him understand the contemporary desire to be able to take agency over our own identities.

Jeffrey Gibson, Can You Feel It (installation view), 2019, Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St.

Gibson’s multi-cultural perspective also informed his study of art history, and helped him to develop his personal style. That style has manifested across several dynamic and diverse bodies of work, in which traditional native materials like animal hides, beads, and tipi poles intermingle with modern mediums like spray paint, acrylics, ceramic and tape. One of his most recognized series involves punching bags that Gibson deftly transforms into aesthetic totems.

Jeffrey Gibson, Can You Feel It (installation view), 2019, Kavi Gupta | Elizabeth St.

Another of Gibson’s long running series involves an examination of ceremonial garments. The garments express a range of perspectives and influences, and seem to anticipate inhabitation, like symbols of history and culture that possess both personal and wider social meaning.

Gibson’s work is included in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Denver Art Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Eiteljorg Museum, the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, amongst others.

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