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, Gibson sculpts less specific, invented bodies that illustrate states of contemplation, dream, or surrender. 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. Her 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.