JOE GIBBONS (B. 1953)

In 2014, driven by a combination of dire financial circumstances and a longstanding engagement with avant-garde performance, Joe Gibbons made the decision to rob a bank. This action resulted in him serving a year in jail for third-degree felony robbery, as one of his students reported him to the police after he bragged about it in class. The entire incident was captured on the bank's security cameras, as well as Gibbons' own handheld camera. However, Gibbons chose to utilize his time at Rikers Island to its fullest extent, treating his year in prison as an artist residency and embarking on a prolific period of drawing, which was a departure from his usual practice. The current lot—created for Gibbons' solo exhibition of drawings at Kunstverein in 2018—is a print of one of the drawings he produced during his time at Rikers Island, making it a highly coveted piece.