Issy Gibbs was born in London in 1998 and spent her formative years in Hampshire. From 2016, she trained at the Charles H. Cecil Studios in Florence, studying under Charles Cecil for four years.
Her time at the studio gave Issy a thorough grounding in the sight-size technique, a method rooted in the tradition of masters like Velázquez, Lawrence and Sargent.
Since 2020, Issy has been based at the Chelsea Studios in London, where she works across a range of projects and commissions.
Her work has been shown in galleries and exhibitions across London, including at the Mall Galleries, where she won the Derwent Special Fine Art Young Artist Award at the Society of Women Artists. In 2025, she was recognised with the De Laszlo Highly Commended Surreal Award at the Green & Stone Summer Exhibition, and was selected for the 2026 Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.
Exhibitions
2026 Royal Academy of Arts Summer Exhibition, London
2026 CPRE Art Exhibition, Hampshire
2025 Green & Stone Summer Exhibition, Winner of de Laszlo Highly Commended Surreal Award, London
2025 Chelsea Art Society Summer Exhibition, London
2024 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2024 Bath Society of Artists, Victoria Art Gallery, Bath
2024 Women in Art Fair, Mall Galleries, London
2024 Society of Women Artists, Mall Galleries, London
2024 Royal Society of British Artists, Mall Galleries, London
2023 Chelsea Art Society Summer Exhibition, London
2023 Society of Women Artists, Winner of Derwent Special Fine Art Young Artist Award, Mall Galleries, London
2023 ‘Babele’, Spazio Musa, Turin, Italy
2022 The South West Academy of Fine Art, Sidmouth
2022 CPRE Art Exhibition, Hampshire
2022 Green & Stone Summer Exhibition, London
2021 Artist in Residence, Spink & Son, London
2021 ING Discerning Eye Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
2021 Ataxia UK, ‘Minds in Movement’, online Exhibition
2021 Hampstead Art Society, The Fitzrovia Gallery, London
2021 Finalist for ‘Future Generation Competition’, by the Portrait Society of America
2018 Charlie Waller Memorial Trust, Newbury