MARK GIBBS
SCULPTURE
PAINTING
EDUCATION
Mark creates complex sculptures featuring animals, horsemen, and vessels. Influenced by archaeology his sculptures resemble ancient ritual artefacts.
He describes his work as ‘Natural-History’; in which themes of deep time, loss and conflict are combined with animal form, and symbolic natural materials.
He says ‘‘My work is a meditation on the fragility of life, and the tragedy of obsolete power.’
Referencing shamanism, horses and other animals are built from the inside out, starting with a skeleton and often including internal organs. The unsettling anatomical look resembles a cyborg or a creature in the stages of reanimation.
A recent series of sculptures; the Horsemen and Memory Vessels, refer to the First World War; commenting on the dangers of Imperialism, and the forces of unrestricted competition which remain dangerous.
His Nightjar Project explores the poetics of camouflage, each bird is made feather by feather out of newspaper.
Mark paints mysterious forests, the habitat of many of his animals and perhaps the long-forgotten conflict.
Mark set up and manages the Arts programme at Carlisle Youth Zone, a vibrant urban youth centre and for 4 years worked as Secondary Learning Officer and a Curatorial Assistant at Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery.
He has taught art at several colleges as well as on art holidays and residential courses. Please contact the artist for further details or proposals.
Mark leading a session at CYZ
Since graduating with a first-class degree in Fine Art from the University of Cumbria, Mark has exhibited internationally, in London and in the North of England.
Mark won the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists 2010 Prize exhibition and the 2016 Upfront Gallery Open. He was included in the 2018 and 2020 New Light Exhibitions and tours which showcase art form the North of England.
He was shortlisted for the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year; being highly commended in the Wildlife in 3D category: 2010; 2011; 2012; 2013; 2014.
Two particularly significant exhibitions were the Art of Remembering [2014 Rheged Gallery and tour] which explored the contemporary significance of the First World War and Craft and Conflict [2018 Highlights Contemporary Crafts tour]
His work is in private and corporate collections in the UK and abroad.
