Camo King, an original sculpture by the pioneering carbon fibre artist, Alastair Gibson, shockingly stolen from an upmarket gallery by a thief in broad daylight

LONDON, GREATER LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, February 23, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ — FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Just five months after Alastair Gibson helped to launch a contemporary art gallery, an original sculpture by the pioneering carbon fibre artist was shockingly stolen from the venue by an unknown thief in broad daylight.

Motivations for the robbery from the high-end gallery in Bristol remain unclear but staff were alarmed when a masked man entered the gallery at approximately 10am on Saturday 29 July 2023 taking off with the 11kg sculpture of a lion’s skull.

Following a police investigation and insurance due diligence after the theft, Gibson and the gallery are now appealing to the public to help find the one-off piece, Camo King, which highlights the ferocious capabilities of a lion. Distilling the majestic creature’s appearance to its core anatomy, Gibson invites the viewer to focus on the powerful jaws. Constructed from coated TB 650 pattern tooling material painted in zebra stripes, it explores methods of competition and success.

The artwork typifies Gibson’s fascination with the natural world – a product of his upbringing in South Africa – and in particular with apex predators. His original design for Camo King has also been used to produce the limited-edition sculpture series Carbon King, which is rendered in solid carbon fibre. Gibson spent over two decades in the adrenaline-fuelled world of motorsports engineering, including 14 years at the height of Formula One, before pursuing his original dream to be an artist. He has since sold over 2,500 sculptures worldwide and is the pioneer of art using his chosen medium of carbon fibre. His talking-point sculptures are embellished with original parts from Grand Prix cars. Camo King features a gear box selector barrel from a Honda F1 race car, a team for which Gibson was chief mechanic. The arresting, light-reflecting teeth are made from bismuth alloy.

“Initially when the phone rang and the news came to me that the sculpture had been stolen my first thoughts were for the welfare of the staff involved in such an appalling experience and for the gallery as a whole and the impact on their business and wellbeing,” says Gibson. “I was also really sad because it’s a unique piece and the first sculpture of a lion’s skull that I ever made. I reflected that I would never know where it would end up and wouldn’t be able to envisage it enlivening a home or the building of an organisation, as I had always hoped it would. Oddly though afterwards, I was quite overwhelmed that someone would go to such dramatic lengths to steal a piece of my art, risking a criminal record to acquire it. I don’t know what their reasons were or what would compel someone to commit an act like this in pursuit of an artwork.”

Gibson remains undeterred by the theft of Camo King and is hopeful for its recovery and reinstatement at the gallery. Following the launch of his ground-breaking solid carbon fibre sculpture, Carbon David – A Revival of History in Godless Modern Times (a bold reimagining of Michelangelo’s David), in November 2023, he is currently working on artworks which will be sold to raise funds for the National Spitfire Project.

If you have any details about the whereabouts or fate of Camo King please contact [email protected] or for more information about the artist please visit www.alastairgibson.com or @alastairgibsonartist on Instagram.

Alastair Gibson
www.alastairgibson.com
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