Gibbs Rounsavall

Unearth the Divine - 2011

Green Building Gallery press release:

"Over the years, local contemporary artist Gibbs Rounsavall’s work has stretched from the polychromatic, linear pieces that "define eye candy" (The Courier-Journal, 2005), to graphite and line that inspire “intellect” (Leo Weekly, 2008) and has always had themes of science and nature running underneath. Rounsavall finds himself wandering down new paths with “Unearth the Divine”, a new series of work that strays from his previous color palette and construction but continues to explore those original ideas. 

 With “Unearth the Divine”, Rounsavall found himself focusing directly on process, opening himself fully to the channels of discovery and surprise. “Reflecting back on these past two years, it has become apparent that discovery involves a sense of unfolding in time and requires one to be equally active and passive”, says Rounsavall. Mix this with inspiration from another experiment with nature, Switzerland’s Large Hadron Collider and the search for the Higgs Boson particle, and the result is a series of large, black enamel, subtractive paintings with rippled, wave-like markings that literally scratch the surface of a new, organic direction in his work. 

 A show in two parts, The Green Building Gallery will house work from his more familiar genre of colorful pattern and design, and also invite the visitor to experience his process in a recreated studio space.  The larger, organic studies will be exhibited at 720 East Market Street, next door to The Green Building. The rough texture of the building’s unfinished walls should provide an appropriate space for the process behind these paintings.”