Hib Sabin: Owls, Ravens, & Other Birds - 2014 at Stonington Gallery

Hib Sabin: Owls, Ravens, & Other Birds Stonington Gallery is pleased to present Owls, Ravens, & Other Birds, a solo exhibition by Hib Sabin (Non-Indigenous).

Sabin renders iconic birds in juniper wood, drawing parallels between legends and mythic characters from around the world. Seeming to belong to no one culture, no one time, these totemic figures are amalgams that seem to arise from a collective subconscious.

Bird forms have long been Sabin’s metaphors for humanity and the human condition, and here he utilizes them to explore concepts of transcendence, solitude and silence.

His Small Beings sculptures each portray a different soul in the form of a small bird, showing the fragility, sensitivity and beauty that are carried within and propel us.

Summer 2014 Presented by Stonington Gallery With this show Sabin continues a gradual stylistic shift that brings more angles into play, and greater texture to his carving. Many works display a new angularity, as sharp wing-tips are juxtaposed against soft, feathery bodies.

There is an almost Cubist hand at work in Great Owl (front cover), as wide planes meet to create the inquisitive face, the shift of shoulders, the set of the head. Color is daubed on impressionistically, only connoting the idea of feathers rather than rendering them. Sabin is showing us the Great Owl that is the spirit and force behind the owls in our everyday skies.

Heavier lines also make an appearance, as if lifted from cave walls or charcoal drawings. The dreaming barn owl in Trinity seems less a depiction of a bird than the Platonic ideal of what a barn owl could be; a designer’s rough-hewn draft of owls to come.

Detail of Trinity

Great Raven--rocking backwards as his wings stretch forward--was inspired by Auguste Rodin’s sculpture Monument to Balzac, which portrays its subject with a blend of nobility, surprise and vulnerability. The Raven’s wings touch the ground in three places, while its eyes seem to peer into space farther than we can see.

The most complex work is Trinity, a triad of an owl, raven and falcon. For Sabin, the owl has always been a symbol of the night, and the raven a symbol of day. In this triad, the owl and raven are inward looking, and earthbound. Their energies are directed inside themselves, while the falcon above them is transcendent: it is a soaring spirit that moves outward and away.

TRINITY Juniper, Pigments, Base 21.25”h x 15.75”w x 5”d $9,750

GREAT OWL Juniper Wood, Pigments, Metal Base 16.75”h x 8.25”w x 7.5”d $5,500

SILENCE Juniper Wood, Pigments, Metal Base 15”h x 4”w x 4”d $4,000

Our every word is bracketed by silence.

It is the space around the words that make what we say and the music we play so important.

Without silence, our sound would not matter.

-Hib Sabin

PORTRAIT OF AN OWL Juniper Wood, Pigments, Metal Base 18”h x 7”w x 6”d $5,000

IMMORTAL COMPANIONS Juniper, Pigments, Base 13.5”h x 10”w x 5.5”d $4,000

GREAT RAVEN Juniper, Pigments, Base 18”h x 8.5”w x 7”d $5,500

There’s a great yearning in our time--a need to return to nature, a need for mythology and ritual.

Many people can’t articulate it, but they can respond to it.

And if you scratch them, a lot of people are drawn to spirit and to the animistic.

-Hib Sabin

TWILIGHT Juniper, Pigments, Base 6.5”h x 9”w x 4.5”d $2,800

ASCENT Juniper, Pigments, Base 9.75”h x 22.75”w x 14.50”d $5,000

SONG OF SOLITUDE Juniper, Pigments, Base 13.25”h x 10.5”w x 3.5”d $2,700

SMALL BEINGS: RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD

SMALL BEINGS: PURPLE FINCH

Juniper, Pigments, Stand 9.5”h x 3”w x 3”d $1,800

Juniper, Pigments, Stand 9”h x 3”w x 3”d $1,700

LITTLE BIRD TOTEM: BIRD WITH TUCKED BEAK

SMALL BEINGS: HOUSE SPARROW

Juniper, Pigments, Metal Base 10.38”h x 6”w x 2.93”d $2,000

Juniper, Pigments, Base 11.75”h x 3.5”w x 3.25”d $2,000

SOLITUDE OF RAVEN Juniper Wood, Pigments, Metal Base 13.25”h x 19”w x 7”d $6,000

SONG OF SOLITUDE - BRONZE Limited Edition Bronze on Stand 7”h x 10”w x 3.5”d $2,000

TWILIGHT - BRONZE Limited Edition Bronze on Stand 7”h x 8.25”w x 3.75”d $2,200

SILENCE - BRONZE Limited Edition Bronze on Stand 14.25”h x 4”w x 3.5”d $2,600

To view more artwork by Hib Sabin Please visit Stonington Gallery www.stoningtongallery.com

Stonington Gallery 125 South Jackson Street Seattle, WA 98104 206.405.4040 art@stoningtongallery.com All Works by Hib Sabin Photography by Ashley Genevieve Catalog Design & Text by Sarra Scherb Š Stonington Gallery 2014