| Chambliss Giobbi’s figurative collages work on two levels: Firstly, as objects of obsessive psychological and physical mutation, and secondly, as testaments to a long courtship between artist and model. After a marathon photo session with his subject, Giobbi prints thousands of photographs. He then tears the prints and glues them, piece by piece, layer upon layer, to create the image. What follows is a series of collages on aluminum panels. Some pieces are flat, while others utilize sculpted forms to create three-dimensional surfaces: Each series embodies a reinvention of technique that conforms to how Giobbi sees the individual portrayed.
Giobbi’s work is deeply psychological: portraits at once linear and composed, then abrupt and splintered. One is left with the notion of witnessing an intense, virtually operatic compression of moments, catharsis and myth: an intimate viewing of entropy. A recipient of Guggenheim, NEA and NYFA fellowships, Giobbi was a prolific composer of classical music for fifteen years before turning to visual art. The notion of time and simultaneity in the development of musical ideas has become a central theme in his fractured, stop-frame images.
Chambliss Giobbi lives and works in New York City. |
