John Gibbons – interview

In his Basildon studio, sculptor John Gibbons talks about light, the Big Bang, the importance of openness and modelling Winston Churchill’s hands

Born in rural Ireland in 1949, John Gibbons moved to London in the 1970s, when he studied at St Martin’s School of Art and worked as an assistant to the portrait sculptor Oscar Nemon. Rooted in the discipline of formalist abstraction, Gibbons has created a wide-ranging, undogmatic and highly personal body of work, responsive to the contemporary urban environment and to art and objects from across cultures, from Dogon ladders of West Africa to Rodin.

His approach is rooted in an improvised responsiveness to materials, whether sourced in the scrapyard or bought from stock, and here he talks about his use of stainless steel from the estate of the American sculptor David Smith. The aim is an untranslatable encounter between viewer and object. Whatever went into the making of a sculpture, or whatever memories it may evoke in the audience, for Gibbons any meaningful experience of art happens in the present, sculpture is always NOW. “You are not in control,” he says. “You have to give yourself to what you are doing, and see what happens.”

Interview by SAM CORNISH
Filmed and edited by MARTIN KENNEDY

John Gibbons, Being, 1997. Stainless steel, 623 x 71 x 71 cm. Evironmental Protection Agency, Johnstone Castle, Wexford, Ireland.

John Gibbons, Beginning, 1995. Steel, 330 x 500 x 94 cm. Private collection.

John Gibbons, First Moment, 2006-07. Stainless steel, paint, 128 x 106 x 164 cm.

John Gibbons, studio view, 2026. Photo: Martin Kennedy.

John Gibbons, studio view, 2026. Photo: Martin Kennedy.

John Gibbons, The Crib, 1995-96. Steel, 88 x 142 x 171 cm.