Zoe Gibbons’ work visualises heritage stories and explores our connection to place using salvaged and upcycled materials. She was the recipient of an Arts Council Award in 2022 to develop her experimental techniques in scaling up stitch and collage.
As part of Bristol’s International Women’s Day celebrations 2023 Zoe started to create a new piece of work called ‘Women’s Threads of Bristol’ in an exhibition and residency at City Hall in Bristol. This was exhibited at the Bristol Radical History Festival at MShed. The installation is made using tufting techniques and aims to put women ‘on the map’ in Bristol by celebrating women who have made a positive difference in the city – past and present. The project led into a public art commission called ‘Aunties of Easton’ featuring flags displayed on Stapleton Road, using the images of 4 women in the local area who had been nominated by members of the local community.
Since 2019 Zoe has been salvaging billboard posters, which are stitched and collaged to create images of Bristol – using materials with pixelations, layers, weathering, print transfer and rusting in an artful way.
Zoe’s work was selected for ‘The Art of Embroidery’ exhibition on the Southbank in London in Feb 2025. One of her pieces ‘torn through time (a re-imagining of The Stoppage at the Bank)’ has been shortlisted for the Viewers Choice Award 2025. This artwork was made in in response to Bristol Museums 200th anniversary ‘Oppulent Origins’, for which it was selected to be displayed for a royal visit as part of Bristol Museums anniversary celebrations. The piece is based on the ‘Bristol School’ artist, Rolinda Sharples’, ‘The Stoppage at the Bank’. By linking her work with a female artist from 200 years ago Zoe reflects on the layers of history under our feet and the threads of connection between our lives and the past.
Zoe exhibits in galleries and sells her work internationally.
She is based out of a studio in Barton Hill and has been a grassroots footballer for over 20 years with the Easton Cowfolk, a social and political sports club with big ideas and roots.
Address:
Salisbury Street
Barton Hill
Bristol
BS5 9UD