Sophie Gibson’s figurative ceramic practice invites imagination and empathy. It begins with images and condenses those images into closer relationships by building them into the space of a single sculpture. By sculpting portraits of specific individuals at a scale close to that of a living human body, Gibson opens the possibility for encounters wherein emotions, remembered experiences, or mysterious information pass from her objects to her viewers. It is through intimate encounters with particular people that we become capable of extending our empathy to humanity on a broader scale. Gibson’s work reflects this opening up from the specific to the universal, for in addition to making carefully observed portrait sculptures, she sculpts less specific, invented bodies that illustrate states of contemplation, dream, or surrender. Gibson collages together existing images to create curious juxtapositions and ambiguous gestures that serve as starting places for her viewers' narrative elaborations. Gibson appreciates how her viewers’ distinct responses to the sculptures are enriched by their diverse memories, histories, and unconscious associations. By staying in dialogue with those around her, she learns of those associations and sometimes incorporates them into her formal decisions. In this way, Gibson’s sculptures begin, proceed, and end as exchanges of intimacies. The purpose of these sculptures is to help awaken people’s narrative and imaginative capacities. 

Sophie Gibson (b. 1993) has an MFA in Ceramic Art from Alfred University’s New York State College of Ceramics. In 2017 she graduated from the Brown | RISD Dual Degree Program with a B.F.A. in Illustration and a B.A. in History. For the past seven years she has lived and worked as an educator in Charlottesville, VA, where she has shown work locally at the Bridge PAI, Mcguffey Art Center, Studio IX, Second Street Gallery, Visible Records, and Chroma Projects.