»Flint & Straw«
Although Jonathan Gibbs has lived and worked in Scotland for a number of years, he acknowledges the importance of the »churches, fields, shorelines and elements of landscape from East Norfolk, where my family comes from«. At first sight, his paintings and engravings evoke a mid-twentieth-century mood, suggestive of territory between Ben Nicholson and Eric Ravilious — fastidious, linear, and deeply sensitive to place. When the art historian Nikolaus Pevsner summarised »the Englishness of English art« for the Reith Lectures in 1955, he chose Hogarth, Reynolds, Perpendicular architecture, William Blake, John... Read The Rest →
»A Collector’s Exhibition«
Aldeburgh Gallery – Two Edinburgh Artists: Jonathan Gibbs and Andrew Restall — Jonathan Gibbs works as an illustrator; he lectures in Illustration at Edinburgh College of Art. But you would never know (as I did not until I was about to leave) that most of the small collection of engravings at the Aldeburgh Gallery were illustrations. He has that enviable ability to produce an image which must have well complemented the text and satisfied the client, yet is able to stand alone, needing no explanation and causing pleasure for its... Read The Rest →
OPEN EYE Gallery
The twentieth century has seen a remarkable revival in the art of wood engraving. Where Blake and Bewick left off, a number of artists have continued the tradition, manipulating the medium and carving out significant reputations at the forefront of relief printmaking. In the 1930s Ravilious, Gill, MacNab, Raverat, Hermes and Nash to name but a few, were all instrumental in keeping the tradition alive by pushing the boundaries and increasing public awareness of an art form which has stood at the crossroads of printmaking and illustration for many years.... Read The Rest →
»Paintings, Drawings & Wood Engravings«
Curwen Gallery – Jonathan Gibbs’s fifth solo exhibition at his venue was, in fact, the first to include an extensive collection of wood engravings. According to the exhibition brochure »… his images refer to things seen and remembered, from nature and from the imagination. Forms are inspired by found objects — stone, wood and bone — and also landscape for example the sea defences on the East Coast. There are windows, shadows, reflections, doorways and enclosures.« This description fits well the memorable Autumn Series of twenty oak panels, painted in... Read The Rest →
Curwen Gallery
Arts Review – This is an exhibition that does, in a positive way, remind you of things. Jonathan Gibbs’s images straddle the line between abstract and narrative, so that as you look at the thirty or so small works in his one-man show at the Curwen Gallery, you seem to remember stories. In one you see, perhaps, a busy, quite dark interior, with a window top left showing sky and a tower block. Another suggests a window, framing boat and hill, in just the colours and mood to remind you... Read The Rest →