Raga, 2014, Watercolor, gouache, ink on paper, 26″ x 37.5″ © Justin Gibbens

Justin Gibbens‘s exhibition “Avatars and Shapeshifters” will be held at PUNCH Gallery from September 4th to 27th, 2014.

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Thirty-some odd years ago when he first began moving graphite on paper, Justin Gibbens was rendering the boyhood standards: dinosaurs, creepy crawlers and other freakish fauna. Apart from trading in his #2 pencil for a watercolor brush and a few tubes of paint, not much has changed in three decades. Lifting the conventions of classic zoological illustration, he paints curious images of a forgotten natural history.

In his latest installment of watercolor illustrations, Gibbens looks to the East. In some cases he tips his hat to the eminent 18th Century bird-and-flower painter Ito Jakuchu’s “Colorful Realm” series, and embraces the tragic drama and pageantry that unfold in this 30-scroll set. On a separate tangent, Gibbens spent 6 weeks in India in earlier this year, and was captured by the drama and pageantry.

Justin Gibbens Exhibition: Avatars and Shapeshifters
Date: September 4th – 27th, 2014
Open: 12:00 – 17:00 (Closed on Sunday to Wednesday)
Place: PUNCH Gallery
Address: 119 Prefontaine Place South, Seattle, WA 98104
Tel: +1 206 621 1945
https://www.punchgallery.org