Based in Newcastle Emlyn, Glenn is best known as a realistic figure painter. Experience as a scenic artist, at the BBC and in the film industry, provided opportunities for him to practice trompe-l’oeil techniques on an industrial scale. Such visual subterfuge has guided his subsequent painting activity in a wide range of media.

​

‘Consignment’ is a multi-media project in which the compositional device of  tightly enclosing the figure within the picture frame’s confines is employed to represent human trafficking and extraordinary rendition. The project eventually comprised more than 260 individual works.

 

The ‘Target’ series is a response not only to conventional state surveillance [comprehensive CCTV systems employed in the ‘free’ West] but also to the various methods and algorhythms employed by various corporations to analyse an individual’s online data and activities, to create a profile which may have profound social and economic consequences unforeseen by  that individual.

 

“I have maintained an interest in the comic book form since childhood. Experiments in this mode have proved useful to me in a wide range of visual activities. My filmwork is usually plotted beforehand as a series of watercolour/gouache storyboards. The set of boards I used to shoot “Tatsuko” developed into a concertina book in A4 format, but growing to eight metres in length, and was used in the film itself to resolve the movie’s ending”.

 

Glenn Ibbitson  August 2016