in the gallery"I Can Taste it in Your Mouth"
New Work by Allyson Gibbs
October 17th through November 17th, 2008
Allyson Gibbs was born and raised in Omaha. She received her BFA in Painting from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in 2001, and was awarded a Bemis Center Artist Residency in 2002. This exhibition will be Allyson's first show exclusively featuring woodblock prints.
From her artist's statement:
"I chose woodblock printing as a medium for a number of reasons. The process of carving out the image in wood can be long and arduous, but the resulting image has an primitive quality that, for me, has a raw and immediate feel. The carved plates have a physical weight and tactile surface that is compelling in it's own right. The raised black dots of the prints, become reminiscent of human imperfection, like a mole or blemish on the skin. The lines, rough and uneven, seem to have more immediacy---the overall print seems like a quick thought, rather than a meditated, carefully executed drawing.
With this work, I was interested in the printmaking process as a metaphor for intimacy and relationships. bringing together paper and plate, not only a physically intimate act in and of itself but also illustrates how, in human relationships, each time two people interact they can have a profound effect on each other. The resulting print exists as a record of the interaction, like a memory. No two prints are identical, the amount of pressure, dampness or softness of the paper, and ink viscosity all effect the outcome. Just as in relationships we live immersed in unseen forces, subject to variants of mood, body rhythm, and brain chemistry."
