Steve Turner Contemporary presents JAMES GOBEL: HAPPY HOUR, the San Francisco artist¡¦s first major exhibition of new work in Los Angeles since 2002. This exhibition will include a selection of paintings in Gobel¡¦s signature style; works made of inlaid felt and yarn, supple and tactile materials usually associated with homemade handicrafts, and like his imagery, combine masculine and feminine associations. Gobel¡¦s paintings are inspired by gay subculture and focus mainly on the portly and hairy ¡§bear¡¨ as a foreground for sexual transgression. His previous body of work used Renaissance portraiture and the notion of ¡§bear as Dandy¡¨ as an ironic depiction of the subculture of ¡§ursine¡¨, heavy-set and furry-faced gay men who usually shun the popular image of homosexuals being effeminate, like those depicted on television shows such as Will and Grace, Brothers and Sisters or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

Gobel¡¦s new body of work introduces new bear taxonomy ¡V bears as renegades - Gobel¡¦s reaction to beardom becoming more mainstream or just another consumer group. He brings the bears out of hibernation from their hidden lairs of basements, rec rooms and bars, appearing less cuddly and teddy-bearish. Proving that there is no such thing as your average bear, Gobel¡¦s paintings challenge the monolithic notions of what it means to be a gay man in today¡¦s society.

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, Kravets/Wehby Gallery, New York and Marx & Zavattero, San Francisco. 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). He is professor of art at California College of Art in San Francisco.

Back to Current