Justin Hibbs’ multi-disciplinary practice evades traditional categorisation, employing a wide range of media to explore the social, political and aesthetic agendas encoded within spatial, architectural and information structures. Recently, his work has become a lens for examining how our transition into the post-digital space and the rise of a post-truth culture are reshaping the questions we ask about reality and reflecting on the complex challenges of our time.
His installations, or ‘environments,’ blend painting, wall drawings, photography, furniture, sound, and sculpture, blurring the lines between art and design and their respective modes of production and display. His work draws on the spirit of the Bauhaus and the Concrete Avant-Garde movement, which sought to engage public participation and reject the idea of art as a rarefied commodity, set apart from the real world and the domestic sphere. Often collaborating with other practitioners in non-traditional settings, his installations become sites of encounter and exchange, spaces for dialogue and interaction between people and objects.
Hibbs is a founder member of Synthesis Sound Archive, an ongoing collaboration with musicians Ben Lancaster and Sean Roche that delves into a dynamic interplay between sound and image, harnessing the relationships between analogue, mechanised and digital modes of production. The collective weaves together music and visual art, probing the vibrant connections between underground music’s storied past, its evolving present, and the visual cultures that orbit these sonic worlds.
Synthesis Sound Archive recently released a collaborative 10” record as a limited edition release. See more here.
Justin Hibbs (b. 1971) studied at CSM, London (1991-94) He has exhibited his work both nationally and internationally and has also curated a series of artist-led exhibitions. Solo shows include: Dark Matter 2026 & Between Before and After 2018 at Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City (2018), The Lives of Others, Laurent Delaye Gallery, Ramsgate, Alias_Re_Covered (2015) at Carroll / Fletcher; PARA/SITE (2013) & Secondary Modern (2010) at Christinger De Mayo gallery, Switzerland; Altneuland (2007), Lucy Mackintosh Gallery, Switzerland; Metroparadisiac (2006) and I'll Wait for you (2005) at the One in the Other Gallery, London. Recent group exhibitions include Darkness Visible at APT, London; No Place Like Home, Arthouse Jersey 2023; Shapeshifters, Arthouse1 London; Abstraction I, Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; Pencil/Line/Eraser (2014), Carroll / Fletcher, London; Superstructures (2013), Arróniz Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City; Oh My Complex, Kunstverein Stuttgart, Germany.
Hibbs has completed several private commissions and has public installations at Scarlett Green, Paradise Green, Ziggy Green, and Bondi Green, all part of the Daisy Green Collection. (London).
Hibbs was commissioned for a major gallery installation for Arthouse Jersey, September 2023.