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Mark Gibbs

Cumbria, UK

About the Artist

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Mark creates complex sculptures featuring animals, horsemen, and ships. Influenced by archeology his sculptures resemble ancient ritual artefacts with many layers of meaning. He describes his work as ‘Natural-History’; in which themes of deep time, loss and conflict are combined with animal form.

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​Referencing shamanism, the animals are built from the inside out, starting with a skeleton and often including internal organs which are then covered with bundles of wire representing the muscle groups, or torn newspaper to represent feathers. 

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The unsettling anatomical look resembles a cyborg or a creature in the stages of reanimation. The newspaper stories are relevant to the works’ meaning, and the inclusion of modern elements such as wire or electronics produces an intentional conflict, are they ancient or from some dystopian future?  

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​Mark says he sees his animals as guardian spirits of a battered environment, standing in opposition to unsustainable materialism. A recent series of cavalry sculptures comments on the dangers of Imperialism, and the forces of unrestricted competition which continue to fuel this destructive mind set.

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​Mark has been included in the 2018, 2020 and 2023 New Light Prize touring exhibitions and shortlisted for the David Shepherd Wildlife Artist of the Year 5 times. In 2018 he was included in the Highlights Contemporary Craft Tour: Craft and Conflict showing alongside craftwork made in UN refugee camps.

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