The Confessions of Richard Gibbons, Recovering Catholic at Chicago Gallery

CHICAGO READER
By Deanna Isaacs

"Prey" (2013) Oil on Canvas, 40" x 66"

ILLINOIS---Richard Gibbons is a Chicago architect and figurative painter obsessed with the sculptural form of the human body. Most of his work has been cool, nearly abstract, and devoid of narrative except for what the viewer might supply. But his current show, "Confession," at Roy Boyd Gallery is a departure—a group of contemporary religious paintings, including three large triptychs, that give voice to a long-simmering struggle with the Roman Catholicism in which he was raised. Here's the story behind them, in Gibbons's own words. "I started on this series almost a year ago, but I was thinking abut the ideas behind it my whole life. I'm from Maumee, Ohio, a small town near Toledo. My parents were observant, and I went to Catholic schools, right through to Notre Dame. I stopped being an observant Catholic at 18 or so, disenchanted with the message. Not the Christian message, but the Catholic message: 'If you don't do this, if you keep thinking gay thoughts, you will go to hell, and you will be punished.'"[link]