Dip in the Night by Leah Giberson
8"x8" ($40) | 11"x11" ($85) | 16"x16" ($275) | 20"x20" ($775) | 30"x30" ($2,650)
Ready for a mid-March pick-me-up? Join us for a li’l Spring Break escape with our newest edition from Leah Giberson: Dip in the Night. Sure, wild parties and sandy buns are a vibe, but if you ask us, there’s no better vacation treat than slipping out into a silent night for a steamy soak. Giberson’s photorealistic painting is an ode to sublime solitude.
Dip in the Night focuses in on the irresistibly alluring steps into a vacant hot tub. Using her signature hyper-realistic strokes and cool color palette, Giberson achieves a palpable atmosphere of a nocturnal affair. The bright submerged lighting reflects onto the smooth metal handrail with a reminiscent icy chill. Surrounded by darkness, the rest of the scene disappears into the night, leaving only the beckoning blue to guide your way. Lit subtly by warm light from behind the viewer, Dip in the Night leads us all on that familiar tip-toed trot across cold concrete before a delicious descent into a warm tub.
Using a unique, multilayered (literally!) process, Giberson begins by taking a photograph, then prints it, cuts it up, rearranges it. Only then does she pull out her paints, working painstakingly on top of the assembled image, washing over certain aspects of the composition, and dialing up the intensity on others. (Here’s a delightful timelapse of the artist at work on her previous 20x200 edition, French Dip.) Giberson is fascinated with memory and the way humans create and recreate stories, writing: “My process echoes the way we each edit and reconstruct our own experiences, weaving together fact and fiction to create our own personal narratives.”
We love the comforting familiarity that comes through in so many of Giberson’s editions, and Dip in the Night is no exception. And with the wild weather ride we’ve all been on these past few months, we could all use this kind of spring break. So grab that towel and join us for a Dip in the Night.
More work by Leah Giberson: