Jo Gibbs: Smashed Up | Exhibition at Putney Library

Forty years after attending her first art classes at Putney College that inspired an exciting career in design, Jo Gibbs presents an exhibition of her latest works at Putney Library. ‘Smashed Up’ comprises a series of arresting art works made from abandoned materials found on skips and street corners, stripping the objects of their everyday camouflage and giving them new life and purpose.

Her latest collection includes slates that billow with beautiful etching, old mirrors transformed into optical worlds, a (found) chair with spinning avocado balls, and objects augmented with her signature ‘netching’ technique, a method that transfers complex repeating lace patterns onto natural surfaces. Jo Gibbs “transforms the unwanted to the sublime” (Vogue) and asks us to rethink our throwaway culture.

Jo Gibbs breathes new life into humdrum objects with a gentle delicacy that gives them new meaning. The success of this kind of work depends on a great eye and a sensitive approach.” Kevin McCloud, Grand Designs

Jo Gibbs trained at Chelsea School of Art in Textile Design and graduated as a Master of Arts with a distinction. Global lifestyle brand Anthropologie bought her entire degree show of etched slates, Bauhaus chairs and mirrors, for their gallery in New York’s Rockefeller Centre. She has been selected for London Design Week, as one of Kevin McCloud’s Green Heroes, and shown at The King’s Foundation’s ‘Arts and Crafts House’ and ‘Best of Britain’ exhibitions.

‘Smashed Up’ will be displayed at Putney Library for the month of October and is free to visit. The exhibition is supported by Brixton Brewery, Brixton Beer, and Arts Council England.

Workshop: Get Creative
Wednesday 30 October 2-7pm, Putney Library
Join Jo for a workshop in painting onto avocado skins! (max 20)