On the Tohoku and Kumano Kodo Trails – Stuart Gibbs

An exhibition of paintings featuring the Tohoku and Kumano Kodo mountain trails in the north and southwest of Honshu Island in Japan.

This exhibition is a collection of paintings inspired by hiking trips on the T?hoku and Kumano Kod? mountain trails in the north and southwest of Honshu Island in Japan. This journey took place between the spring of 2004 and the autumn of 2006. Stuart Gibbs has had an interest in landscape and mountain terrain as a subject for his work. He studied foundation Fine Art at Cumbria College of Art & Design in 1984 before studying painting at Glasgow School of Art graduating with a BA (hons) in 1989. While at the Glasgow School of Art, Stuart received the 1986 Essay Prize for Historical and Critical Studies and later the McRoberts Art Prize hosted by the Art Exposure Gallery in 1992. The painter is currently based out Hanson Street Studios in Dennistoun.

Stuart has had artwork featured in numerous exhibitions at home and abroad, including 1991 the Spectator Art Prize hosted by William Jackson Gallery, London. A tour of Eastern Europe in 1993 organised by the Collective Gallery, Edinburgh which included residencies at the Arka Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania; Friendship Gallery, St Petersburgh, Russia and the Svetmila Gallery, Ukraine. A travelling exhibition organised in 1996 by the British Council to the Community House Gallery in Kyoto, Japan and the Walter C Young Centre, Miami, USA. He has also shown work shown closer to home at the A.Dot Gallery, Glasgow; Obsidian Fine Art, Stoke Mandeville; Colin Jellicoe Gallery, Manchester and the Broughton Gallery, near Biggar, South Lanarkshire.

He has also been engaged in numerous historical-based projects such as Moving the Goalposts and Game for Girls dealing with the history of women’s football. Exhibitions featuring these projects have been held between 2011 and 2017 at the Peoples’ History Museum, Manchester, Scottish Football Museum, Glasgow; Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh and the Devil’s Porridge Museum, Eastriggs, Dumfriesshire. Stuart has been involved as a volunteer researcher since 2017 for Kent University’s Great War Theatre Project, the Miracle Workers project with the Devil’s Porridge Museum and the Mapping Irish Football project with the British Library. He is presently studying towards a PhD in History at Manchester Metropolitan University. Stuart has work in public and private collections such as Scottish Football Museum, Glasgow, and the Annan Museum, Dumfriesshire.