Deborah Schamoni

Gerry Bibby defies strict categories with his artistic practice. His works are made up of precisely calculated sculptural gestures, infused with textual and choreographed, performative elements. The specific compound of sculpture, text and performance stretches temporally and spatially, allowing for playful subversions of cultural and socio-political references. Implicitly, Bibby’s practice is embedded in the relationship between the artist and the institution, or exhibitionary context, by means of intervening in the infrastructures that host his production. By exploring his interest in admitting an artistic production that is not autonomous, one that becomes itself in relation to social and material realities, he welcomes the complications of site and situation. For his commission at Frieze London, for instance, inspired by finding shards of oyster shells in the soil of Regent’s Park, Bibby proceeded to unpack the labour and exchange processes surrounding the history of oysters in London.

Munich & Berlin-based Gerry Bibby (b. 1977 in Melbourne) is the author of the novel The Drumhead (Sternberg Press, 2014) and has been a contributing editor to the magazine Starship in Berlin. Gerry Bibby is currently a professor of fine art at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Munich. Recent solo and group exhibitions include Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, Spain (2023); Busan Biennale, South Korea (2020); Kölnischer Kunstverein, Germany (2019); O-Town House, Los Angeles, USA (2018); Deborah Schamoni (2017); Kunsthalle Bern, Switzerland (2017); Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria (2014).