In the Project Space: “Human Nature”: Gibbons, Roi, and Stock

These works by Karen Gibbons, Robin Roi, and David Stock coalesce around the idea of Human Nature, a concept that provides many avenues for exploration. On the surface, the phrase refers to what is most basic about us, aspects we may not always control. Questions also arise about a distinction between the human and natural worlds, perhaps a duality we have imposed on ourselves.

Karen Gibbon’s work meets this question of duality head-on. She states, “My work reflects the way humanity holds the delusion that we are separate from nature.” She uses mixed media, collage, and multiple panels as metaphors for the fragmented, pieced-together nature of identity, history, and experience in relation to the natural world. In fact, one could say dichotomy is Gibbons’ subject matter. She mines the tension between poles—the feminine and masculine, physical and metaphysical, the symbolic and the literal, and the visible and the hidden. As viewers explore this work, they might find their own narratives in the space that lies between opposites.

Robin Roi is showing work that she made as a direct response to an essential human condition: the vulnerability of the human body. In fact, a very specific body at a very specific time. During the pandemic, her husband was very ill with COVID. The seemingly unending rounds of recovery and relapse drove Roi to seek relief in her work. She went to the park and drew a beautiful tree; doubling the tree and weaving the branches together produced a kind of symmetrical Rorschach pattern that resembled human lungs inflamed with deep red. The work, ink and acrylic paint on paper, is titled Just Breathe. Using the same Rorschach pattern, Roi created a second piece where the trees are painted in hues of bright spring green, her husband having made a complete recovery.

David Stock has been documenting New York City’s hyper-urban environment for many years, using an ever-expanding range of photographic skills and approaches. In the photograph Stormy, Stock has shot a demonstration in Times Square. What makes this so intriguing is that the picture is bisected through the middle. An enormous digital billboard depicting mountains, clouds, and a waterfall sits atop the crowd of people, making for a startling contrast. Whether Stock is photographing individuals, crowds, or the built environment, the city is the raw material, but the subject is always the nature of humans.