Stephen Gibb » canadian pop art http://www.stephengibb.com/gallery Paintings Wed, 25 Feb 2026 23:21:30 +0000 en-US hourly 1 Canadian Artist Stephen Gibb http://www.stephengibb.com/gallery/canadian-artist-stephen-gibb/ http://www.stephengibb.com/gallery/canadian-artist-stephen-gibb/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2017 20:52:34 +0000 http://www.stephengibb.com/gallery/?p=1285 Sometimes art isn't pretty....Canadian artist Stephen Gibb reveals the secret behind one of his paintings

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Opening the chocolate door that leads to the room where my ideas come from

Canadian Artist

Stephen Gibb

Canadian


Revenge of the Sycophant Scorned

What I bring to the art world as a Canadian artist is my idiomatic perspective on Surrealism. Dubbed by some as Bubblegum Surrealism or Pop Surrealism, I use the form to convey ideas in a pictorial and symbolic way using our rich visual culture to pull from. Often borrowing from nursery rhymes, Mother Goose and Grimm’s Fairy Tales, I take imagery of established conventions of childhood story telling and update them into adult themes.

In the above image I have clearly appropriated the image of Humpty Dumpty. His frail frame and cautious life-under-threat existence is the perfect emblem for the existential human. In this situation he is not perilously teetering on a wall but safely enthroned on a cushioned chair.

The real threat comes from the enraged monstrous head that is either poised to bite or is actively screaming at poor Humpty. The head-monster is strangling a chicken (old school end-of-life method for chickens) while in his skull gestates an embryonic spectre of death which opposes the potential of life-the standard symbolism associated with growth in the womb or within an egg.

To make matters worse, there seems to be an even more repulsive monster consuming a chicken leg at the top. On the wall hangs a portrait of a fried egg which brings the chicken/egg theme full circle. Like some ancestral painting it immortalizes an egg in an aborted stage of development.

My intent isn’t to impart a rigid, fixed meaning to the painting but to suggest a direction for the viewer to explore. There are some obvious themes and there are some that are more subtle. The transformative concepts of life, and mortality are readily available to the viewer as well as the personal associations they may draw from the objects themselves. There is also a narrative that presents itself through the title of the piece. The “Sycophant” is embodied by the head-monster and his rage is directed towards his one-time master Humpty Dumpty, royally perched on his throne. One can only guess what caused the revolt, but I suspect the spectre of death had something to do with it all…

See if you can break the code on these paintings…

Persistence of decay

Revenge of the Sycophant Scorned


Artist:


Dimensions:

2’

×

2’



Materials:

oil

on

panel

Canadian artist Stephen Gibb's painting Happy!

Happy! — Stephen Gibb, 36″ x 24″, oil on panel, 2020

For more on Canadian Artist Stephen Gibb take a little trip to folllow Stephen Gibb on Instagram

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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…?
Bubblegum Surrealism: Stephen Gibb – Artist Statement, pop surrealism canada, canadian artist.
(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.
I am often categorized as a Canadian Artist 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 Artist 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 Artist see for more Canadian pop surrealism.

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]]> http://www.stephengibb.com/gallery/canadian-artist-stephen-gibb/feed/ 0 Pop Surrealism meets Pop Art http://www.stephengibb.com/gallery/pop-surrealism-meets-pop-art/ http://www.stephengibb.com/gallery/pop-surrealism-meets-pop-art/#comments Sat, 24 Dec 2016 15:27:54 +0000 http://www.stephengibb.com/gallery/?p=1180 When Pop Surrealism and Pop Art collide the results are Bubblegum Surrealism

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]]> 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

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.

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