Born in 1972 in Portland, Oregon, James Gobel received his BFA at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1996) and his MFA at the University of California, Santa Barbara (1999). Gobel has had solo exhibitions at the UCLA Hammer Museum (2000); Kravets/Wehby Gallery, New York (1999, 2001, 2002, 2005); Marx & Zavattero, San Francisco (2008) and Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles (2008). Gobel's work was included in the traveling museum exhibition curated by Dave Hickey, entitled, Las Vegas Diaspora: The Emergence of Contemporary Art from the Neon Homeland, Las Vegas Art Museum (2007) and The Altoids Curiously Strong Collection, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2005). Gobel's use of felt, yarn and fabric--all supple and highly tactile materials usually associated with homemade handicrafts--imbues his gently humorous portraits with a sense of loving familiarity and intense devotion. Referencing Pop art as well as Renaissance/Baroque portraiture, Gobel's paintings are inspired by gay subculture and focus mainly on the overtly portly and hairy "bear" as a foreground for sexual transgression.

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