Stephen Friedman Gallery presents ‘DREAMING OF HOW IT’S MEANT TO BE’, a new UK solo exhibition by Jeffrey Gibson. Gibson (b.1972, Colorado, USA) fuses his Choctaw-Cherokee heritage with references that span club culture, queer theory, fashion, politics, literature and art history. The exhibition showcases an ambitious new body of work including large-scale multi-media works, sculptures, punching bags and paintings on paper. In April 2024 Gibson will be the first Indigenous artist to represent the United States with a solo pavilion at the 60th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia.
The artist’s first exhibition at the gallery celebrates the breadth of his multi-faceted practice, which is characterised by vibrant colour and pattern. Gibson is renowned for his use of geometric abstraction, inspired by North American Indigenous aesthetics and craft. Combining artisanal beadwork, leatherwork and quilting with narratives of contemporary resistance, the artist harnesses the power of material to activate overlooked narratives, while embracing the presence of historically marginalised identities.
Gibson’s new hyper-visible mixed media works, on view for the first time, introduce a more expressive form of mark making than has been seen in the artist’s painting to date. Sweeping gestural strokes, some of which are made with Gibson’s own hands, counter the hard-edge graphic shapes that comprise each undulating pattern. Gibson’s layering of these elements invites the gestural marks to permeate the foreground, allowing viewers to experience the archaeology of each painting, a technique that is mirrored in the patterning and beadwork of the two new punching bags featured in the exhibition.
