Alistair Gibson

The work in the exhibition at the Lloyd Gill Gallery is the culmination of the main ideas that Alistair has been looking at for the last two years in his work. The developments that recently came about are because of a group of small experimental pieces. The main subject of the work has always been the cars that Alistair watches going past him day in day out in Cardiff. Pardon the pun the car has always been more of a vehicle for experimenting with abstraction and simplification of subject matters in the paintings, providing a simple and iconic subject to work with. The main body of the work and the focus of his latest series of paintings has been the reduction of complex figurative subjects to simplistic representative marks. While fulfilling these criteria, the work still holds a clear and easily recognisable link to the original subject. A strong driving factor in the work is the idea of semiotics and the connections that can be built up between particular arrangements of shapes and colours that will time and again bring the viewer of the work to the figurative subject without the need for complex or overworked images.

Another area that the work has been concerned with exploring is the interplay between the abstract loose and free ground that the heavily controlled and solid subject matter is painted onto. This interplay has changed over the course of the work with the ground of the paintings starting as merely a means to an end. Over the course of the experimental work that has lead up to these pieces, Alistair has discovered that this becomes an integral part of the paintings with experimentation forming as important a part of the visual makeup of the pieces as the more controlled and dictated cars that are situated on its surface.

The element that interests me most is the idea of control that the ground and the cars presents with the conflicts between the free flowing turpentine heavy paint in the ground that dictates to a large extent itself where it goes and the end visual result. Alistair is also interested in the carefully and sparingly placed marks that he uses to present the figurative cars in the picture plane.
The most important advancement in the work in this piece in particular is the realisation of a full scale series of images. The ideas that Alistair has been working with before this particular work were based around creating a series of images to be viewed together, but at the same time easily viewed as singular elements. Alistair says, ‘that was the main driving idea behind these nine paintings and it is the reason why they are all the same size and have the connections between one canvas and the next in the series’. He wanted them to retain their own individual quality’s which is why as the viewers eye moves round the series, it is presented with clearly different perspectives and viewpoints of the cars appearing at different heights and angles. Something else of great importance to this idea is the small connections that are apparent from one painting to the next with cars lapping from one canvas to the next. This idea came about from an interest in how the work as a series would be viewed with the uncertainty being presented to the viewer of whether this work was meant to be one singular image spread over multiple canvases or if they were all separate.

I think there is this conflict present because the spilling over of subjects between separate canvases suggests the singular scene, but the impossible length and the constant changing of direction of the cars movements forcefully oppose this idea with the logic of cars in reality going against the logic in some of the connected works. It is the conflicts between this idea and also the controlled marks under my power and the free grounds that are created by the paint itself as well as the simple conflict present in the idea of abstracting a subject whilst retaining its identity that interests Alistair and what drives the work.
Education
MA Fine Art University of Wales Cardiff
BA Fine Art (2:1) (June 2007)
Diploma in Foundation Studies (Art & Design) (June 2004)

Group Exhibitions
Satellite- Welsh Millennium Centre (July 2008)
Salvation- Walcott Chapel Bath Spa (May 2008)
All That Sparkles – Parkfields Gallery Ross-On-Wye (November-January 2007/08)
Hans Brinker Trophy – Hans Brinker Hotel Amsterdam (December 2008)
Wye Valley Tour- Monmouth City Hall (2006)

Collections
(2007) Geriant Rowe
(2007) James Kelland
(2006) Julian Thorpe Smith
(2006) Ciara Hayes