“Boys Planting”, 2021, Oil on canvas
“The Last Night”, 2020, Oil and acrylic on canvas
“Quiero Amor”, 2019, Oil on canvas
“Nous Visited The Seine, But Did Not Swim”, 2022, Oil on canvas
“The Senses”, 2021, Oil and oil stick on canvas
The paintings in Jerrell Gibbs‘s solo exhibition at Brandywine Museum of Art, No Solace in the Shade, are alive with colors and movement, capturing moments in time both real and imagined.
From the museum about the show-
“Jerrell Gibbs: No Solace in the Shade” surveys the first decade of contemporary Baltimore artist Jerrell Gibbs’s (b. 1988) career and marks his first one-person Museum exhibition. A painter with astonishing creativity, Gibbs’s dynamic, large-scale figurative paintings explore facets of Black life, including family, friends, and community. His highly personal approach creates a narrative that centers everyday moments in Black life, representations of which have been excluded from art history until recent decades. Throughout his body of work, Gibbs transforms scenes of ordinary life into monumental moments while exploring themes of identity, reflection, and belonging.
Across his career, Gibbs has challenged the near invisibility of Black life in American art. He does so by celebrating identity and culture with profound compassion and insight, often weaving in elements of his own upbringing. Several works featured in the exhibition represent people from his own life. Old family photographs are also an inspiration in his creative process, prompting Gibbs to explore questions of identity and the passage of time. Gibbs conveys the joy, liveliness, and contemplation of Black life in positive representations. Shifting away from menacing racial stereotypes present in previous depictions of Black life in art (particularly images of Black men), Gibbs’ paintings show Black people living, not just surviving.
This exhibition closes 3/1/26.
