John Gibbons Temple, 1996-97

John Gibbons (b. 1949) studied at St Martin's School of Art between 1972 and 1976. In 2003 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors. Since his childhood days when he explored ruined castles in his native Ireland, architecture has been important - its proportion responding to human scale, the sense of what is inside expressed by what is outside, and the functions of its details. Rooted in industrial tanks, piping, and girders, his sculptural forms are transformed through cutting and welding into expressions of the artist's will, with their original function lingering only as a residue.

Body and spirit have been a constant subject for Gibbons as they refer to the various states in which we as humans find ourselves. These states are inferred through the nature and use of material, scale, reference, and detail. Gibbons' affinity for steel in his practice stems from the material's properties-its flexibility allows the artist to create strong formal compositions and imaginative forms.

Significant solo exhibitions include John Gibbons, Sculpture 1981-86, Serpentine Gallery, London, 1986; Form and Metaphor, touring exhibition to The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester and Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, 1997; John Gibbons Portraits, The National Portrait Gallery, London, 2009 and 2010; and John Gibbons: Sculpture & Drawing, Royal British Society of Sculptors, London, 2011.