Event Listing - Galleries
Thu Feb 14 - Sat Mar 29

James Gobel: Bear Hunting


Tel. 415-627-9111
Email James Gobel: Bear Hunting
Website

Location
Date and Time
Marx & Zavattero
77 Geary Street, 2nd Floor
San Francisco, CA 94108 map
cross street: Grant Ave.
district: Downtown/Financial District

Thu Feb 14 (10:30-5:30 Tue-Fri; 11-5 Sat)
Fri Feb 15 (10:30-5:30 Tue-Fri; 11-5 Sat)
Sat Feb 16 (OPENING RECEPTION 5-7 PM)
Tue Feb 19 (10:30-5:30 Tue-Fri; 11-5 Sat)
Wed Feb 20 (10:30-5:30 Tue-Fri; 11-5 Sat)

Description
In "Bear Hunting," his first solo exhibition at Marx & Zavattero (formerly Heather Marx Gallery), SF artist James Gobel creates a colorful, mysterious world of portly men in Baroque décor playing a lonely game of hide & seek. Gobel’s trademark bold color, intelligent detail, & verbose figures, some holding lit candelabras in search of something or someone, are set within decadent architectural settings that act as a maze for his subjects to navigate.

Gobel’s work suggests a frolicking yet compassionate farce, painted in a cinematic storyboard fashion, featuring single figures desperately looking for one another & finding various levels of success. Clad in rock t-shirts or plaid flannels, some of his Bears are depicted slumped in a chair, candle wax dripping, signifying that the light will soon be snuffed out and their desires will not be met. A sense of urgency and possible failure permeates the works and leaves the viewer rooting for his characters to connect.