PUNCH Projects presents:
Justin Gibbens and his stuffed animals, in residence

12-4pm, Every Saturday in January, 2022

Greetings city slickers, country bumpkins and all you in-betweeners,

You’re probably finishing up those final crumbs of fruitcake and shaking off that eggnog hangover. Now it’s time to toss the tinsel, practice your puckers, pop the champagne and ring in the New Year! And what better way to welcome 2022 than to stop by the old Thorp fire station on New Year’s Day where the founding members will be warming their toes around the fire pit, passing the prosecco and eating black-eyed peas by the spoonful out of the can? As a bonus, PUNCH founding member Justin Gibbens will be showcasing a survey of recent works that were recently exhibited at the MAC museum in Spokane. Coupled with the paintings and the black-eyed peas, Gibbens will be sharing his artistic process and some of the props that have inspired his newer work. Throughout the month of January, Gibbens will be the artist-in-residence at the fire station, kicking it with his collection of mounted specimens, study skins and other preserved natural objects. Each Saturday, the fire station will be open and Gibbens’ studio practice will be on display. Come and witness the developments over the course of the month as Gibbens delves deeper into his curious obsession with stuffed animals as Gibbens serves as PUNCH’s guinea pig for what we hope will become an established residency program.

Gibbens draws and paints animals from real-life specimens using his signature brand of classic natural history painting. His embellished and stylized images celebrate the beauty and strangeness of the natural world through his use of traditional Chinese fine line painting and classic scientific illustration. In a time when our attention spans are fleeting and our experience of nature is increasingly mediated, Gibbens finds that the discipline of painting with watercolor, ink and brush a meditative and worthwhile exercise. When not is his studio, Gibbens spends his time spotting birds and chasing after reptilian inhabitants of the shrub-steppe. Lately, he’s also been cross-country skiing, home brewing and trying not to let a home remodel project that was started back in the summer get the best of him.