MARK THOMAS GIBSON WHIRLYGIG!
February 3 – March 11, 2023
Mark Thomas Gibson approaches the chaos and contradictions of America’s present as an ever-evolving condition of its own past. Through painting and drawing, his imagery engages the traditions of history painting and caricature, emphasizing the intrinsic surrealities of American culture and its tendency towards mythologizing itself. Gibson employs the aesthetics of satirical cartoons in his work for the immediacy of their subversive, concise messaging. Simultaneously reflecting, critiquing, and mocking societal power structures and cultural hegemonies, Gibson’s work presents a narrative vision of America that implicates both creator and viewer as active participants within its story.
The works in WHIRLYGIG! directly address the tumultuous social and political events that have come to define the first quarter of the 21st century. This selection of works visualizes the relentless flow of information inundating social networks, news channels, and media outlets. A wide array of motifs and characters evolve in Gibson’s world, including steam pipes that scream while you work, trip wires that catch you on your way out, and a vibrant green path of musical phrases that snakes through the crowd at a rally. All the while, white gloved magic acts are prayed over by clasped hands with even whiter knuckles. Down the way, captured Klan hoods wave in the breeze past sticky situations that lose their hold of entangled legs as they churn. It’s a WHIRLYGIG!
Initially conceived of as an examination of the early Biden presidency, this body of work soon evolved into a larger interrogation of American ideologies and their underlying subtexts. In Rally Jams (2022), this sense of timeless pandemonium abounds. A bright green knot bearing excerpts of quotable songs envelope a pair of disembodied, clasped hands and striding feet, while the ghostly eyes of a Klan hood peek from the corner. Another set of hands along the top of the painting incites the horns of a bison with a brandished red flag; the entire composition is illuminated by the glow of a toy sword, set ablaze as a burning cross and lying on the ground in front. Confronting these dystopic manifestations head-on, WHIRLYGIG! offers a striking assessment of a shared time and space within the mediated disorientation of our current reality.
Mark Thomas Gibson (b. 1980, Miami, FL) received his BFA from The Cooper Union in 2002 and his MFA from Yale School of Art in 2013. In 2022, Gibson was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship; he was also a 2021-22 Hodder Fellow at Princeton University and received a Pew Fellowship from the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage in 2021. He was awarded residencies at Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, and the Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency by Collarworks, Troy, NY, in 2021; he was also a resident at the MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH, in 2017. In 2016, Gibson co-curated the traveling exhibition Black Pulp! with William Villalongo. He has released two artist books, Early Retirement (2017), and Some Monsters Loom Large (2016).
White Trip Wire, 2022 Graphite on paper 22 x 30 inches (55.9 x 76.2 cm)
Capture The Mask, 2022 Graphite on paper 45.25 x 51 inches (114.9 x 129.5 cm)
Situated, 2022 Graphite on paper
22 x 30 inches (55.9 x 76.2 cm)
Your Hopes and Prayers, 2022 Graphite on paper 22 x 30 inches (55.9 x 76.2 cm)
Can’t Move On, 2021 Collage on paper
Rally Jams, 2022 Ink on canvas
46 x 64 inches (116.8 x 162.6 cm)
Whirly Gig, 2022 Ink on canvas
62.125 x 87.125 inches (157.8 x 221.3 cm)
All A Go (Steampipes and Hands), 2022 Ink on canvas
American Sing A Long, 2022 Ink on canvas
46 x 63.75 inches (116.8 x 161.9 cm)
MARK THOMAS GIBSON
Born 1980 in Miami, FL
Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA
EDUCATION
2013 MFA, Yale School of Art, Painting & Printmaking
2002 BFA, Cooper Union School for the Advancement of Science and Art
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023 WHIRLYGIG!, Sikkema Jenkins 7 Co., New York, NY, February 3 – March 11, 2023
2021 Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, M+B, Los Angeles, CA, October 23 – December 4, 2021
2020 Resting Space, M+B, Los Angeles, CA, June 12 – July 10, 2020
Mark Thomas Gibson, curated by Jamillah James, M+B at the Armory Show, New York, NY, March 5 – 8, 2020
2019 The Dangerous One, Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, January 15 – March 8, 2019
2018 Gauntlet, Loyal Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden, April 19 – May 26, 2018
2017 Early Retirement, Fredericks & Freiser, New York, NY, September 7 – October 14, 2017
2016 Some Monsters Loom Large, Fredericks & Freiser, New York, NY, March 24 – April 23, 2016
2013 Alamo Revenant, Fredericks & Freiser, New York, NY, November 14 – December 21, 2013
Black and Blue, Motus Fort, Tokyo, Japan, October 4 – October 26, 2013
SELECTED TWO-PERSON AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 Behold: Works from Rutgers Print Collaborative, Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ, March 16 – July 31, 2022
Flying Horse Editions Exhibition, UCF Art Gallery, Orlando, FL, January 13 – February 3, 2022
2021 THIS IS AMERICA, curated by Mike Gessner in partnership with Albertz Benda Gallery, Kunstraum Potsdam, Berlin, Germany, August 7 – September 9, 2021
Bitter Nest, Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan, June 15 – July 17, 2021
Austin Lee, Mark Thomas Gibson: American Psyche, Carl Kostyál, Stockholm, Sweden, June 11 – July 11, 2021
A Gathering, The Catskills, New York, NY, June 5 – 29, 2021
The Myth Industry, Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco, CA, May 13 – June 25, 2021
Something About Us, Anthony Gallery, Chicago, IL, February 2 – March 26, 2021
2020 Vortex, curated by Allison Zuckerman, Kravets Wehby Gallery, New York, NY, October 15 –November 21, 2020
Living in America: An Exhibition in Four Acts, curated by Assembly Room, IPCNY, New York, NY, September 30 – December 19, 2020
Drawing 2020, Gladstone Gallery, New York, NY, September 24 – December 5, 2020
Good Pictures, curated by Austin Lee, Jeffrey Deitch, New York, NY, September 19 –November 7, 2020
Animal Crossing, curated by Jackie Gendel and Dana Frankfort, Inman Gallery, Houston, TX, July 3 – August 29, 2020
100!, Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden, June 26 – September 26, 2020
Life During Wartime: Art in the Age of Coronavirus, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL, June 6 – December 12, 2020
Shifting Gaze: A Reconstruction of the Black and Hispanic Body in Contemporary Art, Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA, March 21, 2020 – January 3, 2021
2019 Routine Malfunction, co-curated by Coady Brown and Pat Phillips, 1969 Gallery, New York, NY, November 1 – November 10, 2019
Rebecca Morgan, Mark Thomas Gibson: Neither Devils Nor Divines, Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY, September 14 – October 13, 2019
Quiet March to a Warring Song, curated by Amie Cunat, Shaker Museum, New Lebanon, NY, May 25 – June 22, 2019
Big Ringer, curated by Andrew Guenther Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York, NY, April 27 – June 8, 2019
2018 The Cruellest Month, Mother Gallery, Beacon, NY, April 14 – June 30, 2018
Utopias, Gallery221, Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL
Gauntlet, International Comix Festival, Lucerne, Switzerland
2017 The Curator’s Eggs, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY, July 12 – August 18, 2017
Woke!, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL, June 2 – July 20, 2017
2016 A Being in the World, Salon 94, New York, NY, June 29 – July 29, 2016
American Optimism, Able Baker Contemporary, Portland, ME, June 10 – July 29, 2016
2015 The Midnight Sun, curated by Dustin Metz, Ms. Barbers, Los Angeles, CA, October 24 –November 22, 2015
The Landscape Changes 30 Times, curated by Ala Dehghan, Anahita Art Gallery, Tehran, Iran
2013 American Beauty, curated by William Villalongo, Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, NY, December 12, 2013 – February 1, 2014
Blaine De St. Croix, Mark Thomas Gibson, Howardena Pindell, Fredericks & Freiser, New York, NY, June 27 – August 2, 2013
2012 Space, curated by Matt Jones, North Atlantic Conference Exhibition, New York, NY
2009 Quick While Still, curated by Kadar Brock, Motus Gallery, Tokyo, Japan, 2009; traveled to: Heist Gallery, New York, NY, January 21 – February 21, 2010
TIME + TEMP: Surveying the Shifting Climate of Painting in South Florida, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL, November 16, 2009 – January 10, 2010
Abracadabra, curated by Jane Hart, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Hollywood, FL, January 22 – February 13, 2009
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library, New Haven, CT
Library of Congress, Washington D.C.
The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO
Hillsborough Community College, Tampa, FL
GRANTS, AWARDS & RESIDENCIES
2022 Grantee, The Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, New York, NY
Guggenheim Fellowship, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, New York, NY
2021-22 Hodder Fellowship, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Pew Fellowship, Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, Philadelphia, PA
2021 Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY
Elizabeth Murray Artist Residency, Troy, NY; Awarded scholarship via Agnes Gund Foundation in partnership with EMAR
2019 Flying Horse Printshop Residency, Orlando, FL
The Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL
2017 The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH
2016 E–Grant, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, New York, NY
2013 Ely Harwood Schless Memorial Fund Award, Yale School of Art, New Haven, CT
