Look again, Alex Gibbs' gouache paintings are hilariously sinister

Date
1 November 2012

Gouache and pencil crayons have always seemed like pretty friendly creative materials to us, the kind of medium with which you’d render a picturesque landscape or the beaming face of an innocent child. But stuff that, sometimes it’s best to subvert your medium and slap your viewer square in the face with some unexpectedly biting satire.

Alex Gibbs is the man responsible for these compelling images, an Edinburgh College of Art graduate with a real flair for the macabre. His work focuses on the sinister side of the human condition – plane crashes, sexual exploitation and neurosis – but he somehow makes it palatable with his colourful draughtsmanship and squidgy, dough-faced characters. Yes, that’s a seedy bout of group sex going on in the woods, but don’t those trees look lovely!

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Alex Gibbs: “a plane once crashed here (pan am 103 1988)”

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Alex Gibbs: “i want to get as high in the trees as the birds do”

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Alex Gibbs: “failed endeavor to be ballsy: wearing a big watch”

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Alex Gibbs: “failed endeavor to be ballsy: wearing a colourful tie”

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Alex Gibbs: “let’s compare doors at the weekend”

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Alex Gibbs: “some night in november”

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Alex Gibbs: “glimpse at a dancing beijing prostitute hairdresser”

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Alex Gibbs: “late night cam girl”

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Alex Gibbs: “i know nothing of the illnesses i will one day have”

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About the Author

James Cartwright

James started out as an intern in 2011 and came back in summer of 2012 to work online and latterly as Print Editor, before leaving in May 2015.

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