We Will, We Will, Rock You!
James Gobel’ s work is less a gender specific vision than the evocation of a broader aesthetic truth. These felt paintings intermix vivid color, plush material, brittle glam and flannel plaids so intensely they could almost be expected to herald the resurrection of Freddy Mercury – be sure to add a pinch of Botero though.
Even if your personal awareness derives from a 'straight' perspective there is a distinct familiarity that reaches out to the viewer. Pop-cultural music references are made on t-shirts worn by the painted subjects and a hyper-sentimentalized male gaze anchors the themes for anyone.
Gobel’ s most frequent subject is a bearded man with “dandied” eyes, holding candles like a torch, and claid in plaid. This character is referred to in gay circles as a Bear but he for these purposes appears highly idealized, vividly permed, and wanly looking off into some romantic distance. The text references to pop culture are names of bands with some gay fan-based artists like Madonna as well as, surprise, surprise, Motorhead – while Lemme is unquestionably a rocker he is also a man’s man.
The pop-to-gay crossovers of the bands that appear on the t-shirts also speak to the role of this artist as an “other” who is able to express an idealized personal truth. To couch this in the language of South Park: These pictures of "Big Gay Al" matter to us all and create new takes on noticeable themes. After 100 years of a naked woman walking down a staircase a big bearded dude instead ascends in “Someday You Will Find Me” fully clothed and holding a candle. The absurdity of a seated, pink-gloved figure wearing engineer boots in a plushly appointed drawing room creates engaging cheese.
The meticulous illustrations of Aubrey Beardsley created tableaux both absurd and seductive coalesced into a fantastic vision. In James Gobel’ s seems to be accomplishing the same brilliant result in felt. Shapes are cut and assembled into a composition plan similar to how a paint-by-numbers canvas might be divided then glued to a canvas. This felt surfaces are augmented with either stenciling or airbrush to increase the depth and create the lighting effects. Mining territory often reserved for Keane, Sad Clowns and the Velvet Elvis – some would argue the third ring of dante’s inferno of creative atrocity – Gobel elevates the materials without stripping it of its previous uses. This in turn gives vibrancy to surface of the object itself.
You can see this work at the newly renamed Marx & Zavaterro (formerly Heather Marx Gallery) 77 Geary Street (@ Grant Avenue), 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94108
