Alan Gibbs (born 1939) is a New Zealand-born businessman, entrepreneur and art collector. After a successful business career in New Zealand, which made him one of that country's wealthiest individuals, he relocated to London in 1999. He retains strong links to New Zealand through his development of

Gibbs Farm Gibbs Farm is an open-air sculpture park located in Kaipara Harbour, north of Auckland, New Zealand. It contains the largest collection of large-scale outdoor sculptures in New Zealand. It is the private art collection of New Zealand businessma ...

, one of the world's leading

sculpture park A sculpture garden or sculpture park is an outdoor garden or park which includes the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings. A sculpture garden may be private, owned by a ...

s. He is the founder of Gibbs Amphibians, based in Detroit, Michigan,

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...

, UK, and

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

, New Zealand, which pioneers high-speed

amphibious vehicle An amphibious vehicle (or simply amphibian), is a vehicle that is a means of transport viable on land as well as on or under water. Amphibious vehicles include amphibious bicycles, ATVs, cars, buses, trucks, railway vehicles, combat vehicles an ...

technologies.

Early life

Alan Gibbs was born in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, the son of Theodore Nisbet Gibbs and Elsie Gibbs.

New Zealand business career

Gibbs went to London in 1963 as Third Secretary in the New Zealand High Commission, returning to New Zealand in 1965 to work in the

Prime Minister's department A cabinet department or prime minister's department is a department or other government agency that directly supports the work of the government's central executive office, usually the cabinet and/or prime minister, rather than specific ministe ...

Art and sculpture collection at Gibbs Farm

Gibbs is one of New Zealand's leading

art collector A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individual ...

s, and since 1991 has been establishing a sprawling sculpture park at

, which is located on

Kaipara Harbour Kaipara Harbour is a large enclosed harbour estuary complex on the north western side of the North Island of New Zealand. The northern part of the harbour is administered by the Kaipara District and the southern part is administered by the Auckl ...

on New Zealand's

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

, north of Auckland in the

Rodney district Rodney District was a local government area in the northernmost part of New Zealand's Auckland Region from 1989 to 2010. It included Kawau Island. It was created from the amalgamation of Helensville, Helensville Borough and Rodney County, New Ze ...

. Among the art works installed on The Farm are monumental pieces by contemporary artists including

Daniel Buren Daniel Buren (born 25 March 1938, in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French conceptual artist, painter, and sculptor. He has won numerous awards including the Golden Lion for best pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1986), the International Award for ...

Neil Dawson Francis Neil Dawson (born 6 November 1948) is a New Zealand sculptor, best known for his large-scale civic pieces crafted from aluminium and stainless steel, often made using a lattice of natural forms which between them form a geometric whole. ...

Marijke de Goey Marijke de Goey (Utrecht, 14 April 1947) is a Dutch visual artist. Biography De Goey was born in Utrecht, Netherlands and studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam between 1974 and 1979. Her work ranges from large monumental sculpt ...

Andy Goldsworthy Andy Goldsworthy (born 26 July 1956) is an English sculptor, photographer, and environmentalist who produces site-specific sculptures and land art situated in natural and urban settings. Early life Goldsworthy was born in Cheshire on 26 J ...

Anish Kapoor Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK ...

George Rickey George Warren Rickey (June 6, 1907 – July 17, 2002) was an American kinetic sculptor. Early life and education Rickey was born on June 6, 1907, in South Bend, Indiana. When Rickey was still a child, his father, an executive with Singer S ...

Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, urban, and architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material quality and exploration o ...

and

Bernar Venet Bernar Venet (born 20 April 1941) is a French conceptual artist. Early life Bernar Venet was born to Jean-Marie Venet, a school teacher and chemist, and Adeline Gilly and was the youngest of four boys. He was brought up in Château-Arnoux-Sai ...

Honours and awards

In 2018, Gibbs was inducted into the

New Zealand Business Hall of Fame The New Zealand Business Hall of Fame is a figurative hall of fame dedicated to New Zealanders who have made a significant contribution to the economic and social development of New Zealand. The hall was established in 1994 by the Young Enterpri ...

References

Books and media

"Seeing the Landscape: Richard Serra's Te Tuhirangi Contour"
documentary film by Alberta Chu, 2003.
"New Form at the Farm: Anish Kapoor's Dismemberment Site 1"
documentary film by Alberta Chu, 2010. * ''Serious Fun: The Life and Times of Alan Gibbs'' by

Paul Goldsmith Paul Goldsmith (born October 2, 1925) is a former USAC and NASCAR driver. He is an inductee of the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, and the USAC Hall of Fame. Later in life Goldsmith became a pilot and, flying ...

; ebook; Random House New Zealand; 3 August 2012; ,