Jim Hibbard: Back in View
May 6 – August 12, 2023
Study Gallery and Print Study Center
Jim Hibbard (American, 1936–2022) was an important Northwest artist who, after a 30-year career of exhibiting and teaching in Portland, established a new home and studio in Guanajuato, Mexico. Organized by guest curator Christy Wyckoff, the exhibition surveys the artist’s career over the past forty years with prints from the collection of the Hallie Ford Museum of Art and the artist’s estate. The exhibition includes the artist’s better-known Portland work but also pays special attention to his later work, seen here for the first time, made during his twenty-five years in Mexico.
Hibbard was a printmaker and teacher who taught at Portland State University (PSU) between 1967 and 1991. He was first known for his masterful work in engraving, but he also utilized lithography and relief printing. It was during the late 1960s that he began to receive national recognition with purchase prizes from the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle and the Cleveland Museum of Art, as well as a prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany award, which he used to buy an etching press.
During the 1970s and ’80s, Hibbard became actively involved in Portland’s arts community. He was a cofounder of the longtime artist cooperative gallery Blackfish, and was a founding member of the Northwest Print Council (now Print Arts Northwest). A progressive political activist and an avid bicyclist, he participated in some of the earliest mass bike rallies in Portland, advocating for bicycling as a valid transportation option. Hibbard also hosted a radio show on Portland’s KBOO during this time, where he read some of his favorite books to listeners, from Moby Dick to The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge.
Upon his retirement from PSU in 1991, Hibbard and his wife Jenny moved to Guanajuato, Mexico, where they established a new studio, Pirimidal Grafica, with Hugo Anaya, a friend and former student. There he continued to make prints for the next twenty-five years, working extensively in monotype, while at times combining the process with relief.
Over the years, Hibbard’s work was featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions throughout the United States, and his prints can be found in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Portland Art Museum, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, and the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, among others.
Exhibition Related Events
Preview Reception
Celebrating: Jim Hibbard: Back in View
Saturday, June 3, 2023 | 6 - 8 p.m.
Hallie Ford Museum of Art
New Members are welcome to join at the event or online
Or by phone at 503-370-6855 or by email at museum-art@willamette.edu
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Tuesday Gallery Talk
With Guest Curator Christy Wyckoff
Tuesday, July 11, 2023 | 12:30 p.m.
Study Gallery and Print Study Center
Hallie Ford Museum of Art
Free and open to the public
Financial Support
This exhibition has been made possible with funds from the HFMA Exhibition Fund: by advertising support from The Oregonian/Oregon Live; and by general operating support grants from the City of Salem's Transient Occupancy Tax funds and the Oregon Arts Commission.
