Charles Kibby Works

After graduating from the University of Oregon in 1975 with a M.S. Degree in Fine Arts (Sculpture), Kibby pursued a career as a visual artist, exhibiting in several one-person and group shows in California, Oregon, New Mexico, and Tennessee. He was also invited to participate in stone sculpture symposia in Italy (Carrara, and Pognana Lario, Como). In 1985 he co-founded a specialty consulting and contracting firm with a focus on the Preservation of Historic Buildings and Structures. This body of work is documented on the website www.kaptivecp.com. During this period, he continued to pursue his initial sculptural vision. He limited his sculptural work to short-term projects using material from buildings his company had restored in California and Arizona. In 2017 he returned to his studio full-time, and his current body of work reflects this most recent period of concentrated exploration and inquiry.

ARTIST STATEMENT - I have always been fascinated with the concept of structure, how things are put together and how they appear to us as composite objects and as symbols. In recent years the idea of objects as symbols, as something ‘other’ has become a more defined focus of my work. I work primarily in stone because it fascinates me as a symbol of Mother Earth, as well as a reference to the idea of structure. The crystalline nature of stone elicits an apt metaphor when considering the notion of component parts and how they are assembled. The discipline of Parametric Design embodies this concept in a wonderfully concise and expansive fashion. This model of structure can be elicited from the Micro- to the Macro-cosmic, from the cellular to the galactic and beyond. Nature and the world/universe around us have always been the focus of my fascination. It’s not just the organic qualities that attract, but also the idea that the structure of nature is so universal in its general application. The Fibonacci spiral, the Golden Mean, Morphogenesis, and many other examples of structure relating to form in our world are the types of naturally occurring relationships that keep me engaged and inspired.  

When I began adding light to my stone assemblies, the additional dimension of illumination created for me an internal conversation about how a fundamental and basic material such as stone could be transformed into a more vibrant and expressive medium, above and beyond the traditional use and perception of stone as a material.