Overview

This book captures a prolific period of self-examination and observation for contemporary artist Jerrell Gibbs (b. 1988). Known for his luminously rendered, expressionistic oil paintings, Gibbs uses the figure as a dynamic and recurring motif to explore themes of Black masculinity, fatherhood, legacy, and remembrance. Drawing from archival family photographs, Gibbs emphasizes placement, size, and proportion, blending intimate mark-making with bold painterly gestures. By complicating and subverting visual stereotypes, Gibbs engages deeply with the materiality of painting, offering tender, emotionally evocative portrayals of Black men as husbands, fathers, brothers, and sons. These allegorical and autobiographical works underscore quiet moments of joy, sorrow, and beauty as vital components of Black life. Additionally, commissioned portraits of such figures as Elijah Cummings and August Wilson are juxtaposed with allegorical figures from Gibbs s dreams, reflecting his growth as an artist and individual. Gibbs s work offers a fresh approach to painting the human form, following in the footsteps of other Black figurative painters Kerry James Marshall, Henry Taylor, and Amy Sherald.

Full Product Details

9780847874408

Table of Contents

Reviews

""If American painting too often renders Black life peripheral or symbolic, Gibbs’ pictures insist on presence: a backyard line dance in “The Electric Slide” (2024), boys settling soil in “Boys Planting” (2021), a romance glimpsed through the plastic coils of a scrapbook in “Boy meets girl” (2023). His art features flowering trees, patterned interiors, and fabrics that pop. Through the artist’s brush, ordinary moments feel almost sacred."" — ESSENCE MAGAZINE

Author Information

Angela N. Carroll is a writer, art historian, and curator based in Baltimore. Jessica Bell Brown is the Executive Directof the Institute for Contempoary Art at VCU. Nia June is a published poet, filmmaker, arts educator, and dancer. Larry Ossei-Mensah is a Ghanaian American curator and cultural critic who has organized exhibitions and programs at commercial and nonprofit spaces around the globe.

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