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I Get What I Want, and Always Get It Again!Post an Event »

Marx & Zavattero

June 12 - July 18, 2010

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77 Geary Street 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94108
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I Get What I Want, and Always Get It Again! Don’t You Know You’ve Got to Try a Little Bit Harder 74" x 43" felt, yarn, rhinestones, & acrylic on canvas, 2010
Opening Reception Saturday, June 12, 5:00 PM Marx & Zavattero is thrilled to present James Gobel’s new exhibition of felt, yarn, and acrylic paintings, in which chubby gay men of the “bear” subculture act out a campy 1980s rock ‘n’ roll fantasy. Gobel spins a glitzy tale of his heroes’ dramatic efforts as they belt out their favorite songs on a brightly lit stage, while studded in decorative attire. A new addition to Gobel’s body of work will be a series of “couture” bean bags, custom fabricated in an array of colorful, plaid textiles sewn to the artist’s specifications. Conceived as sculpture, these bean bags will sit on the gallery floor and provide a witty static counterpoint to the energy and glamour of the new paintings and drawings. I Get What I Want, and Always Get It Again! will run from June 12 to July 17, 2010. Music continues to play a pivotal role in Gobel’s work. Lyrics from pop and rock songs are titles for his pieces, and are often embedded in the works themselves –sometimes inscribed on concert t-shirts worn by Gobel’s subjects. This new body of work channels rock stars such as Freddy Mercury and Adam Ant as the primary narrative thread running throughout. His characters act out on stage against a dizzying array of strobe and footlights, their hips in movement, microphones held aloft like trophies, faces the epitome of resolute sincerity. Their costumes are cut in a variety of boldly colored, fluorescent pinks, yellows, and greens and are studded with faux crystals and beads. The heavily layered detail and patterning brilliantly matches the intensity of his subject’s performances. Gobel has even added a little personalized “bling” in some of the paintings, as his subjects wear bedazzled gold chain necklaces with a purple monogrammed G. A deliciously wonderful sense of abandon permeates this new series, elevating these portly men to icon status; and it is all delightfully sewn together by Gobel’s painstaking detail and seamless craft. Gobel, a 2009 Artadia Award winner, has exhibited widely across the country, including solo exhibitions at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Steve Turner Contemporary, Los Angeles; and Kravets/Wehby Gallery, New York. Group exhibitions include Pattern ID, the Akron Museum of Art, Akron, OH; Collage, curated by Pavel Zoubok, Fred, London; Las Vegas Diaspora: The Emergence of Contemporary Art from the Neon Homeland, curated by Dave Hickey, the Las Vegas Art Museum; I Want You To Want Me, Marx & Zavattero; and Boys of Summer, moniquemeloche, Chicago. Gobel has also exhibited at The New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; Roberts & Tilton, Los Angeles; and John Connelly Presents, New York, among many other venues. Gobel’s work has been reviewed and featured in Art in America, ARTnews, Artforum, Flash Art, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Las Vegas Sun, Metro.Pop, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, Beautiful Decay, Flaunt, Zink, and The Believer, among many other publications. He received his MFA from the University of California, Santa Barbara and his BFA from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The artist lives and works in San Francisco.