Exhibit: 440 Gallery presents A Cup of Air by Karen Gibbons

February 23 through April 8, 2012.

Opening reception: Thursday, February 23th, 6 -9pm

“I’m going out for A Cup of Air,” Brooklyn artist Karen Gibbons’s mother would say to her five children as she stepped outside for a reprieve from the stresses of parenting. The free-standing sculpture and sculptural wall pieces in this exhibit, A Cup of Air, express that whimsical metaphor. They are playful, curious and evocative. This new body of work draws inspiration from three sources: the pastoral landscape, the Gowanus Canal neighborhood of Brooklyn, and the artist’s recently rediscovered family photo archives. Gibbons ingeniously integrates photographs and found objects with an eclectic approach that combines sculpture, painting, drawing and photography in surprising ways. Delightful, unexpected contradictions arise out of the mixture of these elements. The pieces have an air of both reminiscence and anticipation, they combine the ephemeral with the enduring, and they mingle the cherished and the forbidden.

A Cup of Air opens at the 440 Gallery on Thursday, February 23, and will run through Sunday, April 8, 2012. There will be a reception for the artist from 6:00-9:00 PM, Thursday, February 23. The 440 Gallery is in the Park Slope neighborhood, convenient to the F, M, and R subways. The gallery is open Thursday and Friday, 4:00 – 7:00 PM, Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 AM – 7:00 PM, or by appointment.

440 Gallery | 440 Sixth Avenue | Brooklyn | NY | 11215