Light/Listen

Hillsboro Fine Art, 49 Parnell Sq West, Dublin Until Apr 8 01-8788242

In his sculptures, John Gibbons says that he is interested in “surface, where the inner and outer worlds meet”. It’s a good way to approach a body of work that divides roughly into two kinds – one comprising forms that we can see right through, the other forms that are opaque to our gaze. These latter pieces, however, bulge like barely contained parcels. The transparent forms could be interpreted as glances into the parcels. What we see are enormously energetic, lively, buzzing processes, like schematic accounts of what goes on in our heads, encompassing thought, feeling and imagination.

Gibbons was born in Ennis, Co Clare, studied in Limerick and Cork, and then in London in the mid-1970s, where he’s been based ever since, though he frequently returns to Ireland. From the first he displayed tremendous technical ability and formal fluency. He is instinctively at home with fabricated metal, mostly steel, sculpture, and has developed his own distinctive artistic voice with it. This show is a welcome survey of his recent work.

CANT SEE THAT? CATCH THIS

At SeaRoyal Hibernian Gallagher Gallery, Dublin Until May 2