Of Silence and Slow Time

'Her (Gibbons) still lives, mostly painted in Glasgow, are strong but melancholy interior harmonies where rich colours - some surprisingly sweet - glow among sombre ones.' Alasdair Gray, author of Poor Things (2003) Hales is delighted to announce, Of Silence and Slow Time, a solo exhibition by Carole Gibbons. Her debut show at the gallery exhibits still life paintings spanning a ten-year period from the mid-1970s to mid-1980s. The show at Hales London follows on from Gibbons' inclusion in Women in Revolt! Art and Activism in the UK 1970-1990, which originated at Tate Britain and tours to National Galleries Scotland...

Carole Gibbons (b. 1935 Glasgow, Scotland) studied at Glasgow School of Art and was a member of The Young Glasgow Group alongside her peers Alan Fletcher and Douglas Abercrombie. After her studies she travelled to Europe, living in Spain for a time which deeply impacted her work. She lives and works in Glasgow.

For over six decades, Gibbons has cultivated a distinctive painting practice rich with resonant colour and symbolism in a striking painterly language. She received early career success between the 1960s-1980s and was the first living woman to have a solo exhibition at Glasgow's Third Eye Centre in 1975. However, it has not been until recently that Gibbons has gained more widespread recognition. She has long been championed by artists Lucy Stein, Andrew Cranston, poet JF Hendry, writer Alasdair Gray, and art historian Susannah Thompson.

Gibbons' paintings encompass many subjects including folkloric landscapes, existential portraits, ever-present cats and charged still lifes, which are worked on over months and years. A great colourist - 'her still lifes mostly painted in Glasgow, are strong but melancholy harmonies where rich colours - sometimes surprisingly sweet - glow among sombre ones.' Gibbons' paintings have their own 'logic' and 'atmosphere' within formal explorations of colour, surface and uncanny pictorial organisation. Motifs are repeated in the works - a Moroccan vase, a Chinese horse figurine, a scallop shell and stone heads. These long-treasured objects are not only used as a compositional tool but are imbued with psychological fervour. In dreamlike visions there is a synthesis of subconscious and fantasy with the material world.