We Are A Constellation

Overview

Mark Thomas Gibson: We Are A Constellation,

On View: Aug 22, 2026 - Jan 3, 2027

Mark Thomas Gibson: We Are A Constellation is survey organized by Dayton Director Ian Berry in collaboration with the artist.

Mark Thomas Gibson: We Are A Constellation, presents the work of dynamic Philadelphia-based American history painter Mark Thomas Gibson (b. 1980). The exhibition features a selection of works that respond to recent American history as Gibson tries to capture truths that are easily swept away by information overload.

Gibson draws from an eclectic range of sources and inspirations, including comic books, caricatures, historical paintings, and the work of Philip Guston, Robert Colescott, Kara Walker, and Honoré-Victorin Daumier. In his work, Gibson attempts to stir our emotions and reinforce our connections to these events, so that we will not forget them, or lose sight of them in the waves of new headlines.

A reoccurring character in several works is the Town Crier—a stand in for the artist himself—a figure who rings a bell and shouts out important announcements to his fellow citizens. Gibson began the series in 2021 as a daily ritual for processing the news and events of the day. What began as a personal reflection has become a historical archive shared regularly to Gibson’s Instagram.

A centerpiece of the exhibition will be a three-banner Town Crier piece that debuted at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, last year. This epically-scaled piece features an American flag with its red lines as choppy waves on one side and on the other, the Town Crier in the role of Paul Revere astride a horse, sounding the alarm that the greatest threat to American democracy is “not the British, no this time it’s an inside job.” The Crier reminds us that the Boston Massacre in 1770 moved colonists to end the tyranny of the king and that our actions today should be guided by the aspiration in the words of the Constitution. Gibson believes that knowing the past allows us to see where the future is heading and to chart its course as active and engaged citizens.

Installation Views