Artwork copyright Justin Gibbens. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Justin Gibbens. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2019.

Basilosaurus Loop-de-loop, 2013

Justin Gibbens
(American, born 1975)

Location: Peninsula College, Port Angeles

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Basilosaurus Loop-de-loop is part of artist Justin Gibbens' body of work featuring marine mammals, or cetaceans, as the central image. These images comment on our environmental impact and the threats to marine life. "Cetaceans are known to teach, learn, cooperate, scheme and grieve, so they serve as useful metaphors for our own human experience."

Curator Kathleen Garrett selected this artwork as part of a curated collection for Peninsula College in Port Angeles. The artworks installed in Keegan Hall reflect the Pacific Northwest and the many subjects taught in the building. These include Aquaculture, Physics, Biology, and Information Technology.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Peninsula College.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Justin Gibbens creates subversive zoological artworks. He uses images of non-human animals to “serve as cautionary tales and stand-ins for our anthropocentric selves.”

Gibbens is based in Thorp, Central Washington. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in drawing and painting from Central Washington University in Ellensburg and a Scientific Illustration Certificate from the University of Washington in Seattle. He is also one of the founders of PUNCH, an artist collective (and a former gallery) that focuses on artists from rural Central Washington. When not is his studio, Gibbens spends his time spotting birds and chasing after reptilian inhabitants of the shrub-steppe.