Jeff Gabel
Biography
Born 1968, Portland, OR, raised in Decatur, NE
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY
Jeff Gabel makes pencil drawings that feature both real and imaginary people and often revolve around the routine, day-to-day embarrassments of life, best-forgotten college experiences, or the artist’s own inner monologue. Usually accompanied by a lengthy caption, it is the text that most deftly captures his subject, whether rampant speculation into their thoughts or tidy summations of their personalities. Gabel also delves into obscure foreign literature for material as well; with a flair for languages, he provides translation into his own vernacular for a unique and hilarious interpretation of the novel at mural-sized proportions.
Jeff Gabel is an artist who lives and works in Brooklyn. He received a BFA from Kansas State University in 1992, and an MFA from the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, in 1995. Past shows include seven solo exhibitions at Spencer Brownstone Gallery spanning from 2001- 2026, as well as contributions to group exhibitions at venues including 254 Bethnal Green, London; The Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, North Carolina; and White Columns, New York. Gabel has also been exhibited at Kim Kim Gallery in Seoul, South Korea, and The Museum of Old and New Art in Australia. He has been featured in ArtForum, The New York Times, The Village Voice, and The New Yorker, among others.
Exhibitions
2026
The embittered search for the explanatory in the early post-observation-description era
2023
selective report of details of a largely fabricated memory of the porous history of sporadic reflection and observation efforts with no urgency
2022
Not a Show
2015
28000 pages or, 'In Color': a mid-life crisis
2012
The Very Best of Firmin Graf Salawàr dej Striës
2010
No Show
2009
Are you sure you are you?
2008
Jeff Gabel
2008
This is not a drawing
2007
Jeff Gabel
2005
Works on Paper
2004
New Works
2003
Knockabout
2001
Drawings / Paper Sculptures and Animations