Justin Gibbens | Liminal Spaces

November 7 - December 28, 2019

First Thursday Receptions:
November 7, 6 - 8 pm
December 5, 6 - 8 pm

Justin Gibbens created his recent series of watercolor, ink and gouache paintings from observation and memory. In Liminal Spaces, taxidermied animal subjects like birds, rabbits and butterflies appear suspended in space, powerfully communicating themes of transformation through vividly detailed fine line imagery.

Trained in both scientific illustration and traditional Chinese painting, Gibbens’ past oeuvre of zoological drawings often appear like fairy tale creatures, but in contrast, the images in his recent series are unflinchingly exquisite portrayals of inanimate specimens. The artist considers the pictures as “visual vessels for personal histories and emotional containment,” and the series expands his ongoing exploration of allegory and metaphor.

Justin Gibbens received his BA in painting and drawing from Central Washington University in 1998 and a Scientific Illustration Certificate from the University of Washington in 2003. He was the recipient of a 2006 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award and a 2008 Artist Trust Fellowship Award. His work has been exhibited throughout the Pacific Northwest and nationally, and is included in numerous collections including the Washington Arts Consortium (Bellingham, WA), Grinnell College (Grinnell, IA), Microsoft (Redmond, WA), 4Culture/King County Portable Works Collection (Seattle, WA), the City of Seattle (Seattle, WA), the City of Kent (Kent, WA) and the Tacoma Art Museum (Tacoma, WA). In 2019 Mountaineers Press (Seattle, WA) published Gibbens’s illustrations in the book Turn Around Time by David Guterson.