Artist Spotlight: Jeffrey Gibson

It’s been said that the eyes are the window to the soul. In the infinite depths of the human eye we encounter reflections of man’s boundless emotions — fear, anger, sadness, joy, pain, love and romance. We behold the world around us and do our best to process it. We like to think that we can trust our eyes. But, as any good carpenter or glazier knows, windows are not always entirely translucent. They fog. They flood. They suffer near opaqueness under the blanket of nightfall. They can be covered, masked, blocked, barricaded and veiled completely.

Much like a foggy window, our eyes can play tricks on us. They can be deceived, dumbfounded and distracted. When the latter happens, we find ourselves using phrases like, “Things aren’t always as they appear.” Or, sometimes, “It’s just an optical illusion.” 

This is the world of Optical Art (or Op Art for short.). It’s a world where pictures attack the eye and where exploiting the weakness of human vision is not only normal and intentional, but playful and preferred. It’s a world containing an endless cast of characters who dabble in this fantastical form of eye-teasing expressionism. This is where you’ll find 52-year-old American Mississippi Choctaw-Cherokee painter and sculptor Jeffrey A. Gibson.

With roots that can be traced back to Impressionism and Cubism, Op Art emerged sometime in the early to mid-nineteenth century. It has been defined as “a form of abstract art that gives the illusion of movement by the precise use of pattern and color, or in which conflicting patterns emerge and overlap.” It may sound complex, but, at the end of the day, it’s simply a style of art that plays tricks on the eye to create the false impression that something else is happening. The heartbeat of optical art lies not only in its implementation of geometric abstractionism but also in its exploration of optical sensations. It does this by way of simple and recurring rhythmic patterns and color mixtures that tend to vibrate and pulsate, not unlike a Native American powwow drum. There may be no one who understands this better or who can relate to it more than Jeffrey Gibson himself.

“I’ve traveled a lot in my lifetime,” Gibson says in a July 2023 interview with the Art Gallery of New South Wales. “My father was a civil engineer with the U.S. Army. We lived in the United States and then we also lived for a significant time in both Germany and Korea. My mother is from Oklahoma and she is Cherokee, and my father is from Mississippi. He is a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.” 

Despite living in various parts of the world and experiencing different cultures, Gibson clung to his Native American heritage and would eventually go on to earn various art degrees with prestigious programs. His main focus at that time was on painting. In 2019, at the age of 47, he was named a MacArthur Fellow and has continued to receive several notable grants throughout the course of his career. He recently represented the United States at the Venice Biennale, a globally renowned arts and culture exhibition hosted by the Biennale Foundation in Venice. His artwork often refers to complex personal and societal issues such as identity, cultural labels, politics, pop culture and the like, while also highlighting Native American history. 

Enter Round Dancing. Gibson’s 2021 screen print piece is set to make its local debut at the Mobile Museum of Art’s (MMOA) upcoming 60th anniversary event next month. The handmade elk hide drum will be front and center at the highly anticipated celebration, much to the delight of art lovers throughout Mobile and beyond. The piece is one of Gibson’s most well-known recent works and refers to the traditional Native American social dance that combines singing and drumming.

Left Jeffrey Gibson, 2023. Courtesy of the artist and his studio Right Round Dancing by Jeffrey Gibson. Photographed by Sona Pastel-Daneshgar and courtesy the artist and Tandem Press

As a drum that is itself a piece of Op Art, Round Dancing vibrates and pulsates both literally and figuratively, further adding to the artistry and the irony of the piece. The vibrant colors interplay and the patterns mingle in harmonious illusion. The beauty and creativity of both its conception and representation are matchless. 

For Gibson, there’s always been something about the intersection of art and sound, particularly as it relates to his Native American culture. “I’m trained as a painter,” he says in a June interview with Art In America. “And that eventually led into sculpture, things like fringe, river cane, glass beads, beads from all over the world and ultimately clay and fabrics started making more sense. This eventually led into video and performance because a lot of materials I use are related to dance, specifically Native American dance. And then sound is just something that’s been with me. Sound and music have been with me during my whole life.” 

“Round Dancing represents so many of the mindsets and skill sets that our team strives to embed not only in our day-to-day work, but also that we hope our visitors will leave empowered to integrate into their worlds,” says Mobile Museum of Art Executive Director Jon Carfagno. “In order to create this breathtaking composition, Gibson collaborated with the master printmakers at the University of Wisconsin’s Tandem Press. Through a process of experimentation, they leaned into each other’s technical know-how and expertise to solve problems that would stand between the artist and his vision.” 

The drum was sealed with an acrylic matte primer to prevent expansion over time during the drying process and a one-of-a-kind registration jig was built to hold the drum steady for subsequent printing. At the museum, it is not meant only to entertain but to teach. Carfagno makes note of the artistic boldness that is seen in Gibson’s creative process here. 

“The ability to move from having an idea to taking risks and trying new approaches to make your vision a reality is a distinct reflection of what we [at the Mobile Museum of Art] want to teach learners of all ages and backgrounds,” Carfagno says. “The creative process requires the combination of an open mind, an open heart and persistence. The steps that Gibson took to make Round Dancing teach important lessons that are applicable to making things happen in any arena.” 

Speaking of important lessons, it’s worth noting the pursuit of individuality, truth and self-expression seen in Gibson’s work, ideals that seem to have become increasingly rare in a culture so often infatuated with escapism, imitation, artificial intelligence and Hollywood make-believe. In short, it’s easy to confuse reality with fantasy, another illusion we encounter more often these days. Gibson’s work, on the other hand, is a resounding reminder of the significance of uniqueness and the importance of originality — true identity. Many of his pieces incorporate the use of various Native American materials, including beads, fringe, garments, metal jingles and elk hide drums. In some cases, he has even replaced traditional canvas with stretched deer hide, proudly paying tribute to his Indigenous ancestry while simultaneously cultivating a deep and rich appreciation for history and heritage. 

“The work is so layered,” says Carfagno, “both literally and figuratively in terms of what it is and the different meanings that it represents. The elk skin drum is the type of drum that is used in the round dance. And the round dance is a movement of people in concentric patterns and so the work of art [itself] does that by way of the innovative compositional design that is screen-printed onto the substrate and then the fact that it does vibrate and pulsate as you look at it. It invites you into the story, history and conversation along with the artist, and his cultural lineage and traditions.” 

If you ask us, that’s an invitation worth accepting.

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