Painter, sculptor and printmaker, Gimblett was born in Auckland in 1935. Working as a potter in Canada, he went on to study drawing at Ontario College of Art and later attended San Francisco Art Institute to study painting. Based in New York since 1972, Gimblett has exhibited regularly in both America and New Zealand as well as Europe, Asia and Australia. This mix of cultures and aesthetics is evident in Gimblett’s work, a contemporary modernist practice largely consisting of object-based paintings. His shaped canvases convey various associations and meanings connected to the oval, rectangle, tondo, keystone, and the quatrefoil, for which Gimblett is most recognised. Combinations of gold, silver, copper, bronze, epoxy, resin, plaster, paint and pigments are materials used to create highly delicate surfaces which are often interrupted by bold gestural brush marks in acrylic polymers and paints. The religious associations of his materials, such as the association of precious metals to honour, wisdom, and enlightenment parallel his exploration of Eastern and Western spiritual beliefs. His work is represented in major public and private collections around the world, including the Art Gallery of NSW, Queensland Art Gallery, Auckland Art Gallery, San Francisco Art Institute and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
