Ellon Gibbs|Ambush in the Night

May 8–11, 2025 | Spring Studios, New York

Gallery 495 is proud to present a solo booth by Brooklyn-based artist Ellon Gibbs at the 2025 Independent Art Fair, running from May 8–11. Gibbs, 29-year-old artist from Brownsville, NY, brings a striking new body of work that explores the primal relationship between humanity and nature—raw, unfiltered, and urgent.

Gibbs' paintings feel both ancient and contemporary, existing in an enigmatic space that is unplaceable yet deeply familiar. His figures are locked in moments of survival—running, attacking, clinging to life—set against landscapes saturated in color, almost aflame. The unseen presence of fire and destruction hints at an underlying unraveling, a reflection of societal fractures and looming crisis.

Subtle yet unflinching, Gibbs' work offers a brutal commentary on contemporary life. His dystopian environments speak to a learned disconnect—between ourselves and nature, between our food sources, between our fellow humans. Growing up in the populated architecture of New York City, he reflects on the paradox of urban life: millions living side by side, yet isolated within their own apartments or screens.

Within the chaos, there is a call for return, a return to something instinctual, rooted in our mammalian nature. This series, while dark and evocative of end times, suggests a path forward: a reckoning with what we’ve lost and what we might reclaim.