»Works that live dangerously«

Times –

… Jonathan Gibbs is as different as can be, except in one particular: in his paintings, pastels and collages the overall statement is simple and direct, but the means of arriving at it is complicated in the extreme. Most of the bigger works are the result of imposing various patterns on squares of paper then shuffling and patterning until an aesthetically satisfying outcome is reached. And the outcome is very satisfying indeed: Gibbs has an exceptional sense of colour, mostly very subdued, with a lot of blacks and whites and greys and an occasional touch of brick-red at its most sensational excursion. In the last two years he seems to have been moving in the direction of smaller, darker, more intense pictures, but his style remains very independent for one so young (he is only 28) and markedly in the English tradition of atmospheric abstraction proposed by last year’s Hayward Annual. Undoubtedly a talent to watch.

by John Russell Taylor
Times, May 5^th 1981