Jeffery Gibson: Can You Feel It – Closing Reception

Elizabeth Street location.

Solo exhibition during EXPO CHICAGO

Jeffrey Gibson (b. 1972, Colorado, US) 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.

Gibson’s multicultural perspective 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.

Another of Gibson’s long running series involves an examination of ceremonial garments. A selection of these workswere exhibited in a special installation at the entrance to the 2018 New York Armory Show. 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.