Greatness: Brian Gibb
Artist and graphic designer Brian Gibb runs The Public Trust and is the co-founder of Art Prostitute, one of North Texas' finest art publications. He recently sat down with WeShotJr to relay some hard-hitting art opinions for this week's Greatness.Richardson Heights: What is your favorite color and why?
Brian Gibb: I don't have a favorite color, I do however enjoy the combinations of many colors.
RH: As both an artist and a designer, do you see a distinction between the two?
BG: The obvious distinction would be when I am designing for a client, I am trying to communicate their product, company or event, whereas with my own personal work outside influences aren't dictating what I am doing. As far as the act of creating either, they both influence each other. Having a hold on the principles and elements of design makes the personal work more formally resolved. Conversely, there is an additional layer of consideration to the design side of things.
RH: Do you have a day job or are you actually able to be an art prostitute and depend on your creativity to survive?
BG: I have not had a "day job" since I was in college. I have been on my own since AP started in 2003.
RH: What's coming up for Bee Lee Gee Press? Are those your initials?
BG: I am working on a website for it that will launch soon. Essentially it will be the moniker in which I will publish books as well as do commercial work, the name is derived from my own. On the horizon I have a book of drawings by Steven Hopwood-Lewis, as well as the first ever hardcover edition of Art Prostitute.
RH: I've seen the phrase "culture jammer" used in describing you. To what extent, if any, were the writings of Kalle Lasn and Adbusters on your publication and design work?
BG: I have always appreciated their perspective on things. Their advertising subversions which were a 1000 times smarter than the advertisements they were critiquing had a pretty profound effect on me when I was in school. This coupled with their commentary on the world in general, really pushed me to make things that I felt mattered and weren't completely self-serving.
RH: Does the fact that you're becoming increasingly famous for something called "art prostitute" make your mom (and/or grandma) a little squeamish?
BG: Not at all. My family has been extremely supportive of this dream since day one.
RH: Do you think Denton has gotten over it?
BG: There are definitely people there that still talk about all that we did there with the publication and the gallery. I would say that overall people are "over it." We caught a lot of wreck when we made the announcement we were leaving. Most of it was from people who in 2 years never came by, or came by 1 or 2 times, or just for the free beer. I am a bit bummed that I don't see many of the people who actually supported us in Denton coming to the gallery in Dallas. The best I can hope for is that what we did motivates people to take their ideas into action, and follow through with them.
Mr. Gibb's current series of prints entitled "All That Glitters Isn’t Gold" is currently on display at the Magnolia Theater Gallery through December 3, 2008. Image courtesy of Brian Gibb.
posted by RichardsonHeights at 2:20 AM
27 Comments:
So I guess Club Dada got shut down because they didn't pay their bills....
i still can't figure out if these are real questions or not. who would honestly ask someone what their favorite color is? am i not getting something here? is this just sheer laziness and surface level questioning?
these questions suck.
Brian Gibb: small business owner, gallery owner, artist rep, fine artist, designer, book publisher, quarterly magazine publisher
First question out of your mouth is what is your favorite color?
9:10,
I think everyone already knows that shit about him. For better or worse, it seems like this is an "insiders" website. Get over it.
you get over it.
maybe you should make up your mind if this is a serious or a comedy column... every week you change your mind. fucker.
rich-
if you had left it alone and not answered, it would be a lot funnier. i knew it was a joke and so do other people with IQs above 98
rich-
if you had left it alone and not answered, it would be a lot funnier. i knew it was a joke and so do other people with IQs above 98
maybe you don't have to make up your mind whether it's comedy or serious. can it be both? people who can understand layered writing will be able to understand both. you people are really fucking simple and you want to get mad at the writer for your failure to understand intellectual complexity.
It's just reactionary posting. see: the drc
People just flinging ego cum on the internet, thinking they are critiquing something when they aren't even giving it any thought.
But who cares?
I personally want to fire holmes your face northbound with my jocular ego cum 1:05. I admire a post with so much girth. I feel like someone just handed me a grapefruit and I tried it out like a gumdrop. Feed that whale a tic-tac and tap dat shiz. Word.
I think if people aren't laughing it is the writers failure.
I think if people aren't laughing it is the writers failure.
I disagree 1:24
Why should anyone dumb anything down or pander to tastes other than his own? They aren't selling these posts so all their only purpose is to satisfy his own standards and the standards of those who find it suits their taste.
well, the article was not funny. maybe if the interview had taken place in person and there was some sort of back and forth it would have a potential for it. RH said when i thought the first article with that painter was hilarious that this column isn't a joke. plus, brian's work commands respect, not ridicule. he's a hard-working bad-ass who gets nothing but the highest praise from anyone in the multiple fields he works in.
this bit is getting pretty fucking tired. most of this blog is consistently well written, this one is consistently poor. i wasn't going to even read it anymore except you managed to pull one of my friends in to it.
no one and nothing "commands respect"
anything you like or respect is ill-conceived and inconsequential to me.
um, dear 1:54:
man, look. let me spell it out for you:
1. the first interview was something of a joke, because the work was so bad, but the artist seemed to be pretty sincere, so it wasn't a total knock against the guy. it seemed like a genuine attempt to get some insight into someone that did what seemed like inexplicably bad work.
2. obviously, he WAS NOT ridiculing Brian, he was just asking him a funny question. big fucking deal. Is nobody allowed to ask your friend a funny question because he's so respectable? obviously, a lot of people at we shot jr must respect brian, they have even worked together. get over it. just because you don't always understand the tone, doesn't make this all bad.
1:30 I was making a generalization. Obviously, not every person is going to "get" someone's writing, but if your work is being misinterpreted by a large proportion of the people reading it then I think the writer failed to convey his thoughts correctly. I feel that is basically the main challenge of writing. I don't really dislike these interviews but I think some more creative questions could be asked. At the same time though I don't know who this guy is so it isn't as interesting to me. I think that the tone would have been better understood had this been a video also. Video interviews are usually more entertaining to me.
It's probably hard to have a good back-and-forth conversational interview over email. I like these little interviews a lot, actually. They're opportunities to discover something new and interesting.
Also, I've never understood why something has to be funny *or* serious. These interviews are somehow both and neither.
brian is a bad ass
"fuckers" was a little harsh. i'd just gotten out of a fun morning defending myself down at the municipal court. sorry. i wuv u.
12:23 et al - this is not meant to be a comedy column. (But I don't see why the more serious questions can't be interspersed with something to lighten the load.) I guess if I read someone else writing questions like those on a blog I'd be a little irritated too. Like I think I'm soooo cute or something. That's definitely not what was intended. It seems the other general criticism is that stupid questions render the interview kind of pointless... like who really cares what Brian Gibb's favorite color is?
and why?
brain is cunt swab
Brian Gibb is a cherub. Sweet. Smart. Talented. Adore him to the max.
This thread is so dead, and I'm starting to look a little sad, but...
As a Request For Comment, what kind of questions would you as reader like asked of your average North Texas artist, gallery owner, mover & shaker, instigator of greatness, etc? Please provide specific examples.
Thanks for your help (sincerely).
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