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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\tBorn in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1937, Gibson earned a Master of Fine Art degree in sculpture from Ohio University in 1961 and, that same year, he began his teaching career at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. In 1963, he returned to West Virginia to join the Salem College faculty as head of the art department. Morris Harvey College then offered Gibson an opportunity to return to Charleston as a member of the art department faculty in the fall 1965. Gibson taught there for the next five years, while he worked on wood carvings, and welded sculpture.<\/p>\n
\n\tDuring this time in West Virginia, Gibson\u2019s work caught the attention of the Charleston Art Gallery at Sunrise, the first major art gallery to exhibit his work. Gibson also completed three notable commissions: a brass sculpture-fountain for the FMC Inorganic Chemical Company\u2019s newly constructed open-air atrium garden in South Charleston in 1966, two large brass sculptures for permanent installation at the Morris Harvey College campus in 1967, and a brass sculpture for the entrance of the remodeled Lewis Chevrolet dealership in 1968.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\tThat same year, in early 1968, Gibson met local businessman William Endres, who had enrolled in one of his art classes and later offered Gibson the key to his own metal shop facilities in Kanawha City to expand his sculptural materials from wood to include more work in metal. There, Gibson also refined his welding skills while working with many different metals.<\/p>\n
\n\tThough Gibson\u2019s early subject matter often centered around birds, his work in later years shifted focus to mythology, which became more prominent in the following decade.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn 1970, Gibson moved to develop a sculpture program for the art department at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU). There, the extensive sculpture facilities at the college allowed Gibson to focus quite intensely on furthering his sculpture practice.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\tIn his first few years, between 1970\u201374, the artist produced a whopping 70 new sculptures, with five major solo exhibitions in New York and Nashville that established Gibson\u2019s reputation as an artist. Additionally, he won the competitive First American Bank sculpture commission in 1974 for a fountain at the new plaza in downtown Nashville.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis fruitfulness continued, with more than 70 works produced between 1975\u201379 for two solo exhibitions and two major commissions, including a welded brass fountain<\/u> for Nashville\u2019s Cheekwood Botanical Gardens in 1975 and an outdoor \u201cportal<\/u>\u201d sculpture for the entrance of to the Huntington Galleries Bird Walk nature trail in West Virginia. The latter perhaps most acutely reflected such dominant motifs in Gibson\u2019s midcareer work as female figures, birds, and metaphysical reflectors.<\/p>\n \n\tThe rise in Gibson\u2019s art career was directly tied to his success in the classroom. \u201cIf my teaching goes well, my sculpture goes well,\u201d Gibson often remarked. This commitment to his craft did not go unnoticed, with a promotion by 1980 to a full-time professorship that recognized his ten years of excellence as an artist and a teacher.<\/p>\n \n\tClara Hieronymus, the Art and Drama Critic for the Tennessean<\/em>, characterized Gibson at the time as \u201cthe prototype of the ideal teacher artist. Which is to say that his own creative talents speak for what he is teaching his students; that he is both teacher and respected artist.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThat sentiment was captured in the subsequent decade from 1980\u00ad\u201389 in the more than 120 sculptures Gibson made for 23 exhibitions and five commissions. Two exhibitions, one at the Nashville Botanical Gardens and Fine Arts Center of Cheekwood and another at the Cultural Center capitol complex in Charleston included metaphysical reflectors, writing machines, and portals.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThe word metaphysics simply means \u2018beyond the chemical.\u2019 When the Greeks got into things that were beyond the physical reality \u2013 things that could not be touched, tasted, seen, smelled, or heard \u2013 they called it metaphysical,\u201d Gibson explained of the concept.<\/p>\n \n\tDuring the early \u201880s his work became more experimental, with sculptures that could also function as a table, for example. Gibson began questioning what art could be<\/em>, finding a different kind of meaning in an object\u2019s functionality: \u201ca table may be made with the same kind of personal, subjective idea in mind that a piece of sculpture is, but it\u2019s not going to be looked at in the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tContinuing this momentum, some of Gibson\u2019s larger sculptures found a stage at the 1982 World\u2019s Fair in an expansive outdoor exhibition. Other outdoor sculpture exhibitions quickly followed at Walters State Community College, the University of Tennessee, and Cleveland State Community College.<\/p>\n \n\tAll of these opportunities culminated into Gibson\u2019s most significant commission of the period, Rites of Passage<\/em>, the sculpture for MTSU\u2019s 75th anniversary celebration in 1986. \u201cThe idea that went into my latest work Rites of Passage<\/em> has been the major catalyst in my work lately. The idea of a cycle \u2013 birth, life, death. The human animal always looks for repetition, something to have faith in,\u201d Gibson said of the work.<\/p>\n \n\tHis final decade at MTSU included the creation of more than 90 sculptures, 20 exhibits, and five commissions, typically made from welded steel, brass, bronze, or aluminum, and a mixture of metals. In 1991 and 1996, his work was presented in two exhibitions at The Cumberland Gallery and continued to be featured in outdoor shows.<\/p>\n \n\tGibson\u2019s massive Big Table<\/em> received the purchase award at the 1995\u201396 Sculpture Garden III Biennial Exhibit at Chattanooga State Technical Community College, while his WV Buffet<\/em> sculpture was accepted in the 1995 fifth International Shoebox Sculpture Competition, where it is currently housed in the permanent collection at the University of Charleston. In 1997, his commissioned stainless-steel sculpture Reflection of Memories <\/em>was realized and installed at the University of Charleston\u2019s Clay Tower Building.<\/p>\n \n\tGibson characterized his work at this time as \u201cstrongly influenced by my interest in sculptural form, mythology, and marker as a metaphor for a conspicuous object serving as a guide for travelers.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShortly thereafter, in 1999, Gibson retired after 29 years of teaching at MTSU. In 2000, the same school named Gibson professor emeritus. He was also inducted into the Alumni Gallery of Achievement by the University of Charleston and his work can be found in both private and public collections throughout the United States, as well as Turkey, Germany, and Austria.<\/p>\n \n\tIn retirement, Gibson\u2019s work shifted again from themes of spiritual passage and ferries, giving way to forms of grave markers and cairns. In 2003, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville purchased Mardis Marker<\/em> for its permanent collection following an exhibition centered on Tennessee artists.<\/p>\n \n\tThe last work Gibson made, titled 4:14 St. James Place<\/em>, taken from a Bible verse, anticipated his own passage to death in 2017 at 81 years old.<\/p>\n \n\tGibson left behind an indelible mark on his community, with a rich cultural legacy and a robust portfolio of more than 600 sculptures. Today, 240 of those works in his estate are available for purchase to collectors and gallerists.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/G1982RR-image.jpg?w=400\")
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