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Pop Surrealism meets Pop Art

By Stephen Gibb | Published: 24/12/2016

When Pop Surrealism meets Pop Art the result is something like this:

Pop Art Peanut Butter

Canadian pop surrealism meets pop art peanut butter - Stephen Gibb

Pop Art Popsicle

pop surrealism pop art popsicle - Stephen Gibb

Pop Art Reese Peanut Butter Cup

Canadian pop surrealism reese peanut butter cup - Stephen Gibb

Pop Art Happy Candy

pop surrealism candy

Pop Art Happy Cookie

pop surrealism cookie - Stephen Gibb

Pop Art Donut

pop surrealism donut - Stephen Gibb

Pop Art Dorito

pop surrealism dorito - Stephen Gibb

Pop Art Happy Pie

Canadian pop surrealism happy pie - Stephen Gibb

Pop Art Dopamine

Canadian Pop Surrealism - Dopamine

Happy Pie - Stephen Gibb paintingsReturn to main gallery
Thank you for joining us in the off-kilter world of Stephen Gibb, where surrealism and Mother Goose are turned on their heads. Take time to explore and ponder his mysterious paintings, that delve into the anxieties and joys of contemporary life, his musing on human behaviour, philosophy, and the innermost workings of his angular mind. Let’s hear from the artist himself…

(Or, at least a feeble attempt to excuse my behaviour to those present with good taste)
My artwork weaves an eclectic tapestry of cultural and social influences. At one moment it may make a
single-punch-line commentary on pop culture, while the next it may construct a complex and playful diorama
probing into the outer perimeters of human nature.

My work is often categorized as pop surrealism but I’d begrudgingly prefer to tag it as existential editorial
cartoon realism, just because it sounds more intelligent, pretentious and funny at the same time. The work holds
a certain reverence and faithfulness to mimicking reality but leans far enough away to fall in the shadow of the
“uncanny valley*”, the area where the mind is unsettled by what looks real enough but couldn’t possible
be. It is in this realm, theoretically, that the mind’s gamma waves are super-stimulated and brain activity
resembles exploding fireworks. I resolve that this accounts for the broad reactions my work garners from observers,
that ranges from contemptuous dismissal to enthusiastic exuberance. We are all wired differently.

The medium is the method, which has been a faithful deployment of oil painting and traditional oil painting
techniques, such as glazing and the occasional dalliance into chiaroscuro. The richness achieved
by layers of thinned oil paint on wood panels always adds an interesting luminous vitality to the final
piece. Pop Surrealism meets Pop Art

My direction as of late has been to devote more to composing on the panels rather than in pre-sketches.
I’m intrigued by the more spontaneous and gratifying results of ideas presenting themselves in the process
rather than in the planning, hence the falloff in the recent output of sketches. Often a core image or
concept dictates subliminally as to how the composition manifests itself. pop art peanut butter, pop surrealism peanut butter, pop art cookie, pop surrealism cookie, pop art popsicle, pop surrealism popsicle,

Canadian Pop Surrealism meets Pop Art

This entry was posted in Canadian Surrealism, Pop Art, Pop Surrealism Lowbrow, Stephen Gibb and tagged art, artist, bubblegum surrealism, canada, canadian, canadian pop art, canadian pop surrealism, canadian surrealism, contemporary art, cookie, humpty dumpty, peanut butter, pie, pop art, pop surrealism, Pop Surrealism meets Pop Art, reese cup, reese peanut butter cup, reeses peanut butter cup, stephen gibb, stephen gibb art, steve gibb, surrealism. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.

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