November 13 – January 08, 2011
Opening reception: Saturday, November 13
Artist Talk: 7 pm
Lora Reynolds Gallery is pleased to announce Here and There, our third solo exhibition of work by the British artist Ewan Gibbs.
Travel destinations, urban facades and interior spaces are three types of images that Ewan Gibbs employs in his intimate drawings - each one containing thousands of miniscule marks varied only by the weight of his hand. This method evolved from the discovery of a book on knitting patterns while Gibbs was still an art student in London. The book included patterns that broke down each composition stitch by stitch, similar to the way that Gibbs abstracts his subject matter today. Using an intricate system of repetitive marks and pattern, Gibbs self-consciously constructs a realistic image that is a representation of its source material. But more importantly it pictures the process by which it was made. Referencing Pop Art, his work is akin to Roy Lichtenstein's and the grid systems of Chuck Close. Sharp and recognizable from afar, the imagery breaks down into a drawn surface with close proximity.
For Here and There Gibbs will present two groups of drawings. One is from landmarks and common sites around Austin such as the Texas State Capital while the other is based on interior spaces. The Austin drawings stem from photographs taken throughout the city by Gibbs, a similar starting point to projects in Aspen, Chicago and San Francisco. For instance, a drawing of a now dismantled water tower taps into the work's ability to evoke memories and preserve a segment of a city's ever evolving landscape.
Juxtaposed with this kind of urbanism is a series of intimate interiors. Using found images that are taken from vacation brochures, they are drawn corresponding to the exact size of the source image. Although much smaller in scale, these recent graphite interiors have more clarity and definition than his previous ink drawings of the same subject matter that he made in the nineties. Today they are denser due to his use of a finer grid and a uniform series of marks, creating subtle sets of variation.
Ewan Gibbs lives and works in Oxfordshire, England. He obtained his BFA from London's Goldsmiths College and was recently commissioned by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art to make a group of 18 drawings for the museum's 75th Anniversary. His work has been acquired by, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, The Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, The Tate Gallery, London, The High Museum, Atlanta, and the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin. An upcoming solo exhibition is scheduled at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in 2012.