Here we go round the prickly apple at 5 o’clock in the morning – Stephen Gibb, oil on panel, 2017

Canadian art is more than the Group of Seven. It is more than our glorious indigenous art. It is more than the stereotypical landscape and wildlife painting that dominates reproductions on calendars and postcards and garner top rankings on Google searches.

The Canadian art identity is subtle. To an Asian it would likely be identified as “western” and to a European it would likely be construed as American. It would probably take a fellow Canadian to extract the Canadianness from artwork that doesn’t rely on typical geographical cues (wildlife, wilderness) and symbols (hockey, poutine etc.).

There is a state of mind represented that could loosely be identified as “not American”. It is a perspective of detachment and distance that allows Canadian art to pry up the corners of North American culture to expose the hidden elements that jiggle in the shadows of the periphery. Outside the glow of the spotlight, in the American blind spots, lurks the forgotten, the disenfranchised, the marginalized; the alienated…that when brought into sharp focus tells another story altogether – a Canadian story.

This is the playground in which many Canadian artists build their sandcastles. The underbelly of Pop culture super-saturation, the dark corners out of the line of fire of the relentless mass-marketing assault.

It just happens that my surreal sandbox is full of childhood remnants and symbols drenched in literal word and image play.

The painting above is entitled “Here we go round the prickly apple at 5 o’clock in the morning”, a skewed reference to T.S. Eliot’s The Hollow Men which some of the imagery also alludes to. Whereas Eliot’s allusions were more relevant to post World War I, my reading of it is more post Cold War and contemporary.

My central figure, the hollow monstrosity, blindly lurching across the landscape, is a figure of despair with his beard of honey and skullcap shredded from his “mind-blowing experience”. The honey has run past the mouth and now drips away, like the passing of time, no longer a sweet sensation but a receding memory.

Guided by the whispers of the serpent coiled on his arm, the tongue-in-cheek biblical symbolism is continued with the apple, rendered inedible by the spines it is covered with, yet the double-ended serpent is poised to bite regardless of the pain. Out of the serpent’s mouth flows the river of life in which swims a progression of evolving creatures from amoeba, to tadpole, fish to humanoid. This relates to the story of the Garden of Eden, original sin and the flow of life from that mythic origin. An eaten apple (the sin already committed) seems to want revenge on the prickly apple, perhaps in some cannibalistic tit-for-tat in order to vindicate his symbolic death.

Below the apples is a large lab rat, lured by unusual bait. The eyeball hovering over the trap is a point of perspective, which we all know can be a trap in itself. Lab animals are often used metaphorically to mock human’s primitive, behavioural nature.

To the hollow man’s left elbow is a toppling totem of emotions. At the bottom is anger or rage, then sadness, happiness, a sort of hybrid of disgust and contempt and lastly fear, which is in imminent peril of falling. Read into this the chaotic spectrum of emotions that we are dealt in life and the tenuous balance that must be kept for self-preservation.

At the far left two canisters of goo tumble sideways, spilling their toxic contents on the landscape in a gesture too familiar in our times, where pollution is reviled but ignored at the same time. Next to the cans an over-sized crow rips at the garments of a scarecrow, mocking its purpose, rendering it useless and making the scarecrow worthy of it death’s head crown.

To the far right Humpty Dumpty doesn’t fall because of his precarious perch on the wall. He falls because the integrity of the wall is degraded; crumbling beneath him which in some way represents the frail foundations on which we depend so often yet fail to support us securely just the same.

The sky is a duality of night and day with both the sun and moon as passive observers of the activity below. Their double presence represents the continuum of time, constantly flowing in perpetuity.

Between the sun and moon, Mother Goose takes flight like some benign fairy tale witch. She acts as a thematic thread, connecting the symbol-drenched stories of childhood nursery rhymes and fairy tales with the contemporary, adult-themed imagery in the painting. And yes, that’s a Canada goose…

What more can you expect from us fur-trading hockey players chugging maple syrup, scarfing poutine and watching the northern lights astride a seven foot bull moose?

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Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall,
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.
All the king’s horses and all the king’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty together again…*

My obsession with Humpty Dumpty is both visual philosophical in nature. I am drawn to the famous egg visually, through his numerous portrayals in children’s books. His ovoid shape and cephalic body create a disconcerting strangeness that is hard to forget. Often styled with an equally strange grimace his impact on impressionable children is assured. One of the more famous portrayals is that by John Tenniel in Lewis Carrol’s Through the Looking-Glass (1872). Tenniel’s version of Humpty Dumpty with his wide slit mouth and creepy arched brows has stuck with me and penetrated many of my own characters in my paintings.

Aside from being physically creepy Humpty is also an egg. Frail, vulnerable and awkward he becomes a perfect symbol for the existential human. We are in constant state of alert when it comes to self-preservation and safety, something Humpty took too lightly. I often insert Humpty into my paintings as a symbolic representation of myself. Sometime he is just included as a frail human witness participating in my jumbled scenarios. He becomes a sympathetic entity that the viewer can hopefully identify with.

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* The rhyme does not explicitly state that the subject is an egg, possibly because it may have been originally posed as a riddle. There are also various theories of an original “Humpty Dumpty”. One, advanced by Katherine Elwes Thomas in 1930 and adopted by Robert Ripley, posits that Humpty Dumpty is King Richard III of England, depicted as humpbacked in Tudor histories and particularly in Shakespeare’s play, and who was defeated, despite his armies, at Bosworth Field in 1485.

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pop surrealism peanut butter

Anyone who creates something remotely surreal owes a debt to Freud, for delineating the concept of the “unconscious” mind, Andre Bretton, for formalizing the surreal process into a movement and Salvador Dali for rising to the top as their darling poster boy.

It was Dali who captured in oil paint the highly rendered, dream-like imagery of the wandering mind into a form that was both disturbing and intoxicating. Dali spawned thousands of imitators, emulators and admirers, and love him or hate him, his influence today is undeniable. He may have borrowed from the godfather of the surreal, Hieronymus Bosch, but as one time card-carrying contemporary of Surrealism, he was the painter exemplar.

Persistence of Dali

I often hear comments from people that my work reminds them of Dali and I forgive them for being naïve but also understand that it’s just a convenient way to tag me. As a simple point of reference that helps them to share in some kind of “art” experience, I know I should be more tolerant. It used to make me insane but now I’ve become numb to it.

Dopamine

But really, why should I protest? People are making associations; connections, conclusions that may not be particularly original but at least they are exhibiting what essentially makes surrealism tick – the instinctive reflex for humans to seek meaning out of chaos. If this is how the “audience” makes sense of their perceptions, how does the artist encode their intentions?

There was a reason I mentioned Dali above because I am now going to use him and his ilk to demonstrate my thought process in explain how I came to paint the way I paint. Often asked, “Where do your ideas come from?” I can now attempt to expose some of that process in a few clumsy paragraphs.

When I first encountered the work of Bosch, Breughel, Dali, De Chirico, Man Ray, Ernst, Magritte and others, I felt an immediate connection. No one had to explain or guide me through the subtleties of what I experienced. It was like a puzzle that had no conclusion, but was fun to unravel. That unsettling sense of familiar and unfamiliar blended into one form, touching the matchstick to the fuse in my powder keg mind is what drew me to the surreal. Something dreamlike, something innocent and perverse, something lurking in the shadows whispering inaudible prompts to draw you in, spin you blindfolded and shove you back into the world.

The lovelorn and the cycle of lies

This is what art should be for me. Something that generates ideas, thoughts, and discussions and that just doesn’t pose as an answer. It should be embraced for the conceptual nudge it gives and not for some phantom truth that it strives for. It should be open-ended and mysterious, to open the floodgates of your reasoning and stir the colliding thoughts in a pot of egoless abandon. It should go with you once you leave it, and gnaw at your sleep. It should soak into your skin and enter your bloodstream. It should surprise you when it unexpectedly returns in your daily activity.

When confronted by surrealist art people are often hung up on meaning. “What does it mean?” is asked in haste and the question precedes the act of seeing. It also becomes the blind alley leading them away from self-discovery. To process without instruction is a liberty we should embrace. This is your chance to be creative with nothing more than a visual stimulus to get your cart moving. The elements of a surreal composition can set a tone and set you free to associate whatever idiosyncratic notions you may chance upon. There is no rulebook, map or schematic logic to follow. It’s up to you.

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Revenge of the sycophant scorned – 2016

While Canada may be best known for hockey, maple syrup and poutine it also has a rich history in the arts and literature as being a detached point of perspective from which to do profound field studies on the United States. As the nearest sibling to America, Canada has been infiltrated by its culture, invaded by its advertising, amused and confused by its politics and saturated by its media. Where better than to observe the crucible of western culture and watch it bubble over…?

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Happy Surreal Peanut Butter

Happy Peanut Butter – Stephen Gibb, oil on panel, 2’x2′, 2016r

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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…

Canadian Pop Surrealism meets Pop Art
(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 Canadian pop surrealism but I’d begrudgingly prefer to tag it as existential editorial cartoon realism, bubblegum surrealism, pop art, and or pop surrealism just because it sounds more intelligent, pretentious and funny at the same time. The work holds
Make sure to look for Happy Surreal Peanut Butter, pop art peanut butter, pop surrealism peanut butter, pop art cookie, pop surrealism cookie, pop art popsicle, pop surrealism popsicle and all the other fun images found at . If you have ever seen a happy surreal peanut butter sandwich then you have been bestowed with infinite good fortune and should buy a lottery ticket immediately. If you happen to eat a happy surreal peanut butter sandwich then your good fortune will be shared with everyone you come in contact with. Make sure to wash it down with a nice cold glass of fresh chocolate milk. Meditate on your favourite Canadian pop surrealist painter and all will be well.

Happy Surreal Peanut Butter

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Pop Art Peanut Butter

Pop Art Popsicle

Pop Art Reese Peanut Butter Cup

Pop Art Happy Candy

Pop Art Happy Cookie

Pop Art Donut

Pop Art Dorito

Pop Art Happy Pie

Pop Art Dopamine

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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

Pop Surrealism meets Pop Art appeared first on Stephen Gibb.

Surreal PBC Cup

Stephen Gibb, 2’x2′, oil on panel, 2016

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Surreal PB Cup.
Artist Stephen Gibb – Canadian Pop Surrealism Artist.
The connection between the concept of consumerism and the objects and products consumed(literally) has been a recurring theme in my painting for years. I also like to anthropomorphize the products to give them an emotional dimension and character which in pop surrealism can then be integrated in a narrative including these characters. Surrealism has always delved into the realm where reality blurs into the dream world and making characters of inanimate objects also amps up the weirdness.
see stephengibb.com for more surreal PB cup. Surreal PB Cup, PB cup, reese cup, Canadian pop surrealism.

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Dopamine

Stephen Gibb, oil on panel, 2016

This surreal painting by Canadian artist Stephen Gibb portrays a commentary on consumerism symbolized by the central figure of the all-consuming-mouth monster devouring candy, pastries and chocolate. The central elements contain benign, candy-coloured characters but give way to the austere, menacing and depraved characters that loom on the fringes. The specter of death with it’s grindstone nose, the onion spirit and other unsavory images of decay, disgust and filth frame the sweet interior. The contrast between the desirable and the repulsive adds to the tension of the the concepts at battle.
The title “Dopamine” is in reference to the reward centres of the brain that get flooded with dopamine when stimulated by the powerful feelings of pleasure associated with sugar consumption; however, these excess neurotransmitter levels also take a long-term toll on brain chemistry and can even promote substance dependency.
Go to facebook for more Canadian Pop Surrealism and Bubblegum Surrealism images with links to more content and info.

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Bubblegum Surrealism: Stephen Gibb – Artist Statement, pop surrealism canada, canadian pop surrealism.
(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
surreal single-punch-line comment on Canadian pop culture while the next it may construct a complex and playful diorama of surrealism
probing into the outer perimeters of human nature and surrealism.
My work is often categorized as Canadian pop surrealism but I’d begrudgingly prefer to tag it as existential editorial
cartoon realism (Canadian bubblegum surrealism), just because it sounds more intelligent and funny at the same time. The work holds
a certain surreal reverence and faithfulness to reality mimicry but leans away enough 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 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 Surreal Canadian oil painting
techniques, such as glazing and the occasional dalliance into chiaroscuro. The richness achieved
by layers of thinned oil paint on MDF panels always adds an interesting luminous quality to the final
piece.
My direction as of late has been to devote more to composing on the panels rather than in 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. Canadian Surrealism
see stephengibb.com for more Canadian pop surrealism.

The post Dopamine – by Canadian Pop Surrealist Stephen Gibb appeared first on Stephen Gibb.

2016

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Visit Sideshow Fine Art for prints of selected works.

Index of paintings by Stephen Gibb 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009

Stephen Gibb – Artist Statement
(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 comment 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 and funny at the same time. The work holds
a certain reverence and faithfulness to reality mimicry but leans away enough 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 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 oilpainting
techniques, such as glazing and the occasional dalliance into chiaroscuro. The richness achieved
by layers of thinned oil paint on MDF panels always adds an interesting luminous quality to the final
piece.
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.
see stephengibb.com for more 2016 paintings

The post 2016 appeared first on Stephen Gibb.

Revenge of the sycophant scorned – 2016

But is it contemporary art?

Here we go round the prickly apple at 5 o’clock in the morning – Stephen Gibb, oil on panel, 2017

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 and muse on the complexities of human behaviour and the fuzzy stratospheres of philosophy. Now let’s hear from the artist himself…

When I discovered Hieronymus Bosch at age 11 I knew I was going to be an artist. Up until that point my idea of an artist was Norman Rockwell, so imagine my surprise.

The artwork that made an early impression on my tiny 1960s mind was Rat Fink and the gruesome “Hot Rod” characters popularized by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth. There was something both revolting and appealing about his creations that I can’t quite resolve in my mind.

I also had this inexplicable sort of fascination/repulsion with commercial icons like the lovable Aunt Jemima, the quirky Quaker Oats guy and the unsettling nursery rhyme illustrations of Humpty Dumpty, man-in-the-moon faces and any highly-rendered cartoon character displaying an extreme emotion.

Everyone is quick to lump me with surrealism and specifically with Salvador Dali but I think I have more to do with MAD magazine than with Sigmund Freud.

Artist’s Statement
(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.

It is often categorized as pop surrealism but I’d begrudgingly prefer to tag it as existential editorial cartoon realism or my tongue-in-cheek favourite “Bubblegum Surrealism”, just because they sound 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 like something real but couldn’t possibly 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, which ranges from contemptuous dismissal to enthusiastic exuberance. We are all wired differently.

The medium is the method, which is a faithful deployment of oil paint using 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.

When constructing a painting, I often let a core image or concept dictate subliminally as to how the composition manifests itself. Colours and characters are woven in a psychological loom and their ambiguity speaks both clearly and muted (with off-stage directions) to those who are willing to confront them head on. Nothing is written in stone, nothing is absolute except the thirst to explore ideas.

-dictated under duress, 2015 (forcibly amended December, 2016)

Death of Contemplation, Stephen Gibb, 36″ x 24″, oil on panel, 2019

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Contemporary art in Canada, Canadian surrealism, Canadian Pop Surrealism, Bubblegum Surrealism

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Dopamine – oil on panel, 2016

Here we go round the prickly apple at 5 o’clock in the morning – Stephen Gibb, oil on panel, 2017

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Bubblegum surrealism of Stephen Gibb

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Visit Sideshow Fine Art for prints of selected works.

2025 paintings

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2024 paintings

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2023 paintings

15 Photos

2022 paintings

16 Photos

2021 paintings

17 Photos

2020

21 Photos

2019 paintings

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2018 paintings

25 Photos

2017 paintings

17 Photos

2016 paintings

12 Photos

2015 paintings

15 Photos

2014 paintings

23 Photos

2013 paintings

13 Photos

2012 paintings

22 Photos

2011 paintings

14 Photos

2010 paintings

16 Photos

2009 paintings

32 Photos

Bubblegum Surrealism: Stephen Gibb – Artist Statement
(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 comment 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 and funny at the same time. The work holds
a certain reverence and faithfulness to reality mimicry but leans away enough 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 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 MDF panels always adds an interesting luminous quality to the final
piece.
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.
see stephengibb.com for more gallery images

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