Please join us Saturday night, Jan 20th, 6-8pm for Jeff Gabel’s opening. The installation is taking shape and looks, we have to say, absolutely spiffing.

From the PR:
Spencer Brownstone Gallery is delighted to announce our third solo show of new work by Jeff Gabel, in which the artist hones his hilarious and startlingly insightful observations of the world around him.

Typically taking the form of pencil drawings of people appended by lines of scrawled text that outline the moment of individual crisis or reverie in which that character may be caught, Gabel’s work represents a searching and hugely empathetic exploration of the contemporary American social landscape.

Repeatedly drawn to the kind of suburban and rural milieux of the artist’s formative years in Nebraska and Kansas, Gabel’s subject matter gravitates toward the themes of religion, sex, alcohol, politics, violence, art and guilt. While often adopting the tone of a ranting misanthrope, the voice (recalling the animated work of Mike Judge or comic books of Daniel Clowes) is used ultimately as a guise that allows the artist to get close to his subject matter.

The main space will feature a wall of small drawings exquisitely rendered on six and eight inch square gesso boards, as well as a series of large drawings on canvas that take a wry look at the intersection of religion and popular culture. In the back space at the gallery, Gabel will debut the latest of his translation works, an illustrated audio-visual adaptation of the Thomas Mann short story ‘Gladius Dei’, rendered from the original German into a grammatically impoverished (yet profanity-rich) contemporary vernacular.

Our exhibition of new work by Jeff coincides with a solo presentation of selected work from the past ten years by the artist – part of ‘Storylines: Narrative in Drawing’ – on view at Staten Island’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center through March 25th 2007.

Exhibition continues through February 24th. More info here>