Justin Gibbens in the Community Gallery at Confluence Oct 15

Confluence Gallery presents

Justin Gibbens

Peaceable Kingdom

In the Community Gallery

Saturday October 15 – November 19 2016

Opening reception Saturday, October 15 4-8pm

Peaceable Kingdom features works created utilizing the conventions of classic natural science illustration to represent familiar inhabitants of the Northwest. Justin Gibbens renders these creatures in gouache on found Arabic manuscripts inspired by the classical painting tradition of Persian miniatures.

Justin Gibbens came to Confluence Gallery through connections at Gallery One Visual Art Center in Ellensburg, WA. We first featured his work in the gallery during the Mythology exhibit in 2015, where his work Pacific Merman was the featured artwork on our poster.

Justin came to his style of work through a lifetime of fascination with creatures. He tells us that "Thirty-some odd years ago when I first began moving graphite on paper I was rendering the boyhood standards: dinosaurs, creepy crawlers and other freakish fauna. Not much has changed in three decades. I credit my work to countless hours spent watching David Attenborough documentaries, innumerable trips to natural history museums, and above all, a keen and unhealthy interest in all things that scamper and poke about in the undergrowth, slither in the thickets, soar through the ether and swim in the infinite abyss of our planet’s aquatic environments. In the Peaceable Kingdom series, I utilize the conventions of classic natural science illustration to represent familiar inhabitants of the Northwest. In this case, using old Arabic and Sanskrit manuscripts as a substrate and as an aesthetic nod to the exquisite and focused precision found in the classical painting tradition of Persian miniatures."

Justin Gibbens received his BA in painting and drawing from Central Washington University in 1998 and a Scientific Illustration Certificate from University of Washington in 2003. He is a founding member of PUNCH Projects (formerly PUNCH Gallery), an artist-run collective from central Washington. Gibbens was the recipient of a 2006 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award and a 2008 Artist Trust Fellowship Award. He is represented by G. Gibson Gallery in Seattle, WA and Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland, OR. His work has been collected by Grinnell College, Microsoft, 4Culture/King County Portable Works Collection, City of Seattle (Seattle City Light: Portable Works Collection) and the Washington State Arts Consortium. In addition to his studio practice, Gibbens has begun adapting his images for larger-scale public mural projects. Gibbens lives in rural Thorp, Washington with his dangerously talented wife Renee Adams.