ARTIST’S STATEMENT

We are surrounded by complexity, empowered, emboldened, and sometimes confounded by a steady stream of technological marvels. Humanity courts disaster but regularly invents solutions to problems we didn’t previously see or comprehend. We are living with and through mega-crises as the pace of change accelerates and the unintended consequences of human action over Millenia multiply and threaten to overwhelm.

In this context, making art is equal parts sense-making and pursuit of solace. Every new work is a search for meaning, and an attempt to reconcile the contradictions that define our lives and times. Currently, I am on a quest to find hope and build community, while grappling with questions big and small: Will future generations inherit a wasteland or a wonderland? Where do we find authentic community? What will build connections and lift our spirits for the road ahead? How do we heal the world?

Inspired by acts of courage – both individual and collective – my work considers the dynamic tension between past and future, known and unknowable, convergence and divergence, order and chaos, hope and fear. Using a range of techniques and materials, I pursue painting, printmaking, and textile art. A single work often combines monoprints with screen printing, block printing, or abstracted digital images. Stitched fabrics sometimes stand in as “plates,” inked up to reveal the underside of quilts and garments including the fibers and lines of stitching. I find inspiration in and through the natural world, history, connections, and conversations.

Every new work is an exploration of the frontier between my feelings, and experience with the world on the one hand, and an array of raw materials, textures, and techniques on the other. The medium is essential to the message. Scale is relative. The most intimate prints can suggest broad landscapes, and larger works may explore a microscape.

Barbara Kibbe, 2023

SELECTED JURIED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 2024 Color in Art: Voices Soft and Loud Belvedere-Tiburon CA
• 2023 Resilience Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica CA
• 2023 Left Coast Annual Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica CA
• 2023 Connections: Art & Music Belvedere-Tiburon Library Art Center, Belvedere CA
• 2022 Abstract Belvedere-Tiburon Library Art Center, Belvedere CA
• 2020 Art Quilts Sebastopol Center for the Arts, Sebastopol CA
• 2020 The de Young Open Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco CA
• 2020 50/50 Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica CA
• 2019 The Crow Show The Studio Door, San Diego CA
• 2018 Blackout Art on 30th, San Diego CA

SELECTED JURIED GROUP TOURING EXHIBITIONS

• 2023-2027 Printed & Stitched California Society of Printmakers/Studio Art Quilt Associates
• 2022-2026 Prism Play Studio Art Quilt Associates, Regional Exhibition
• 2021-2022 Art Quilts 2 Studio Art Quilt Associates, Regional Exhibition
• 2020-2023 Musica! Studio Art Quilt Associates, Global Exhibition
• 2019-2022 Stitching California Studio Art Quilt Associates, Regional Exhibition
• 2019-2022 Upcycle! Studio Art Quilt Associates, Global Exhibition

OTHER

• Art at the CZI Community Space Redwood City CA (invited artist)
• 2022 ReIMAGINED The Randall Museum with SCRAP, San Francisco CA (invited artist)
• 2022 eMerge Print Exchange and online exhibition California Society of Printmakers
• 2021 RePURPOSED The Randall Museum with SCRAP, San Francisco CA (invited artist)
• 2019 Reverie Print Exchange Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica CA

AFFILIATIONS

• California Society of Printmakers (CSP) Juried member
• Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) Past Chair, Exhibition Committee for Northern California/Northern Nevada Region

EDUCATION

• Wagner College BA in Art with departmental honors, Staten Island NY
• Brooklyn Law School JD with emphasis in Art Law, Brooklyn NY

CONTINUING EDUCATION

• Whole Artist Mastery Immersion mentorship with Marianne Mitchell
• Mark Eanes Academy Color + Design; Advanced Color + Design; Language of Color; Language of Design; Language of Drawing
• Monterey Peninsula College Printmaking
• Mendocino Art Center Quilt and collage (Deborah Fell); Encaustic Monoprint (Evelyn Klein); Painting into Abstraction (Marianne Mitchell)

AWARDS

• 2022 Merit Award Art Guild of Pacifica, Pacifica CA
• 2019 Exhibition Award Art Guild of Pacifica, Pacifica CA