Mark Thomas Gibson: WHIRLYGIG!

He acknowledges that there may be political realities elsewhere. Conflicts at a scruffy, violent standstill (both 2022), represent the predictable and blunt state of affairs that for every action in nature, there is an equivalent and opposite reaction. This means that it is impossible to achieve success and that fighting is essential. The exhibition is a chaotic mess of untangled arms and legs and a standstill in tense balanced forces. These forces--of violence tension and morbid balance----are the center of the exhibit. Hands are in desperate struggle and feet are planted. Knees and elbows are full of potential energy to resist or hold off a force equal or greater in magnitude. These knots of equilibrium are similar to the diagrams from a Physics 101 problem set. It is interspersed by text snakes that read, among other things, "You can't always have what you want". Gibson draws inspiration from old political cartoons, including those of Thomas Rowlandson and Honore Daumier and William Hogarth. He also draws inspiration from George Herriman and Will Eisner's inky comics. 2022: Pressure is once more applied, and released in a cacophony anthropomorphized steam whistling. Although it is difficult to discern the emotion, whether this is anger or pleasure, joy or pain, we can see the mouths and instantly identifiable cloudburst tropes. Gibson makes sure to draw from the visual vocabulary of speed lines and thought balloons to create amusement and understanding. (2022); The former is a pencil drawing of leather shoes and the latter is a pair of hand. The shoe's heel and the imaginary energy lines that run parallel to the sole are more convincing than angry fiscal policy discourse (unfortunately). These drawings are also reminiscent of the craft and care that went into renaissance sketches. It was the effort to capture an emotion or look with just one pen stroke. Gibson is adamant about avoiding texture in his paintings and prefers to paint with a brushstroke. Gibson paints with ink and it fits perfectly on the smooth, sanded canvas surface. Many works on paper are concerned with the typology of political art known as the slight-of hand. 2021, a collage made on paper with a gloved hand and a bunch of blue Irises filling the frame. Gibson's use of bricks in background is an added bonus to these illusions. It almost feels like we are in a theater with the backstage wall. (1778-82); Recasting all figures in the image. Commentaries on the precarious situation of African Americans after-Reconstruction. Gibson is able to reconfigure existing formulas quickly and update them to meet the current needs. Perhaps this is his way forward through the current chaos, which seems to be a necessary preoccupation.