ARTIST
Sarah Gibson’s early creative work was as a filmmaker where she was interested in the poetics of documentary and innovation with documentary form, in particular the documentary essay.
It was in the making of The Hundredth Room (2004), a personal essay documentary exploring the inner experience of grief that Sarah started to integrate her own paintings into her film work.
In The Hundredth Room she invites the audience to come on a journey with her through the process of grief and beyond, to discover what death says about life. Sarah animated over a hundred acrylic paintings depicting the journey of a character Red Girl, who represents her inner emotional experience.
> Paintings for The Hundredth Room
Red Girl reappeared in Re-enchantment:The Hidden Meaning of Fairy Tales for Adults (online at www.abc.net.au/re-enchantment ) and the animated film Inside The Witch’s House as part of her enhanced I-book Ways to Interpret Fairy Tales (available from itunes)
from Red Girl in the House of the Dark Mother, a series of acrylic paintings and animations, 2007-2014
In 2011, Sarah undertook an artist residency with Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. It was here we encounter the adventures of Red Girl in the art districts of Beijing.
Red Girl in Beijing, acrylic paintings, 2011
Sarah completed an artist residency in Obracadobra, Oaxaca in 2013 where together with photographer Digby Duncan, she explored the Mexican attitude to death through the Oaxaca Day of the Dead celebrations. Together they produced a blog Journeys to the Underworld which is online at: http://journeystotheunderworld.com/category/journey/mexico/
- Journeys to the Underworld: Mexico, 2013
During 2014 Sarah produced a series of oil pastel drawings based on her time in Mexico.
Mexico Oil pastel series, 2014
In 2015 Sarah exhibited a series of oil pastel drawings ‘Dias de los Muertos: Red Girl in Mexico‘ involving self portraits and Red Girl images that explore the theme of our fear of death. This is a continuation of her work Journeys to the Underworld.
She also undertook an artist residency at Green Olive Arts, Tetouan, Morocco in September, 2015 where she developed the artist book ‘Red Girl in Morocco'(available from Amazon.com)
She also produced a short video ‘Moments in Tetouan’ documenting her time in Tetouan.
In 2016-8 Sarah has continued to develop her self portrait paintings and drawings.
In 2018 she exhibited a series of Red Girl works around the theme of books and reading.
Medusa Red Girl (2017) 570cm x 760 cm Acrylic
Remembering Yayoi (2018) 560x 760 cm Acrylic on paper
In 2019 she exhibited a new series of works ‘The Monstrous Feminine’ exploring women’s anger.
In 2020 Sarah exhibited Ninety Plus a series of oil pastel portraits of women artists who worked or are working into their 90s. Their innovative expressions of their inner selves and outer lives provide us with rich bodies of work from which we can draw inspiration. Most of these women struggled for recognition. Often they did not have major exhibitions until they were in their 80s or 90s. Sadly with a few exceptions, the art world is still orientated to the white male artists.
More about this project can be viewed in ‘Recent Work’ section.
In 2022 Sarah exhibited work from ‘The Oldest Mermaid’ series in a group show ‘Coming Up From Air’. More about this project can be viewed in ‘Recent Work’ section.
Moving House, acrylic on canvas, 35 x 45 cm (2022)
Sarah completed a MFA at College of Fine Arts at the University of NSW in 1991. Her painting practice has been guided by Daniel Pata, Juliet Holmes-a-Court, Renata Pari Lewis and Wendy Sharpe together with lecturers at NAS, Meadowbank Gallery School and Art Est over the last fifteen years.
SOLO EXHIBITION
2015 UP Studios Gallery, Marrickville, Sydney
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022The Shop Gallery, Glebe, Sydney
2020 The Shop Gallery, Glebe, Sydney
2019 One +2 Gallery, Rozelle, Sydney
2019 The Shop Gallery, Glebe, Sydney
2018 One +2 Gallery, Rozelle, Sydney
2018 The Shop Gallery, Glebe, Sydney
2018 Comber St Studios, Paddington, Sydney
2017 The Shop Gallery, Glebe, Sydney
2017 One +2 Gallery, Rozelle, Sydney
2016 Studio 1, Crowsnest, Sydney
2016 Art Est, Leichhardt, Sydney
2016 One +2 Gallery, Rozelle, Sydney
2015 Green Olive Arts, Tetouan, Morocco
2015 Hunters Hill Art Exhibition, Sydney
2015 Upmost, Ultimo Projects Studio, Marrickville, Sydney
2015 Future Feminist Archive, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney
2014 Student Exhibition, Studio 1, Annandale, Sydney
2012 Student Exhibition, Waverly Arts Centre, Sydney
2011 Residency Exhibition, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China
2010 The Bondi Expressionists, MILS Gallery, Sydney
2009 Image Ecologies, University of Technology, Sydney
2003 Art and Soul, The Well Centre, Sydney
Publications
Red Girl in Morocco (2016) Artist Book available from Amazon.com
Ways to Interpret Fairy Tales (2014) Ebook available on ITunes
Sarah Gibson 