Mariane Ibrahim announces Sounds of Color: Recorded Memories, the gallery's inaugural exhibition with Baltimore-based painter Jerrell Gibbs. On view in Chicago from September 4 – October 23, 2021, the show marks the artist's first solo exhibition globally.
Gibbs avails the new body of work as a point of departure to explore musicality in his compositions. As harmony is the basis of color theory and melody emulate the unity of color, the dynamic and symphony are defined through Gibb’s pictorial touch. Paying homage to the Impressionists, the paintings are vivid in pointillism, the oscillating contours of his paintings meld the skin tone and monochrome backgrounds into a modern sfumato.
The boy in all of the works represents a multitude of voices, ideas and ways of living. For the artist, the color, the ‘people of color’ portray the multiple and myriad of experiences and ideas that should be painted about, explored and shown. There is a continuation of gesture which acts as a thread between each work.
Repetition is a constant throughout the paintings, resemblances are disposed in order to discover particularities of a memory. The recurrence of stroke join the colors with the repeated figure, as the artist uses repetition as a form of distinction. Visual and palette rhythms, cannot be replaced, echoing a secret vibration which animates profoundness.
The fictional portraits mark a shift from his interest in acquainting the past, and instead reflect a pursuit of redefining representations. Figurative compositions explore contemporary identity to “change the narrative rather than repeat the renegade.” Gibbs attention lies in manifesting a youthful and revitalized future defined by schisms of contemporary Black solace.
Although no musical collaboration will accompany the paintings, Gibbs challenges himself to communicate the rhythmic energy present in his subjects and their environment. By implementing concepts of synesthesia, playing with textures and utilizing a bright selection of color, the vibrancy of the image protrudes from the canvas, awakening the gallery into a space of spontaneous leisure.
Sounds of Color: Recorded Memories is his repartee, from exploring the legacies inherited through his family for generations, to how he attempts to define his own legacy and his own genre in art history.
