Jeff Gabel
Encyclopedia
Jeff Gabel, aka Thomas Stolperer, (born 1968) is an American artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY.
in 1992, and an MFA at Pratt Institute
in 1995. His first solo exhibition in New York City took place at Spencer Brownstone Gallery in 2001-02, and was called a "season highlight" by The New Yorker. The show was also reviewed in Flash Art by Massimiliano Gioni. He has most recently exhibited work in "Monanism", the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Old and New Art
in Hobart, Australia. Gabel is currently represented by Spencer Brownstone Gallery in New York, NY.
have been exhibited and reviewed repeatedly. In 2009, he created and performed a complete re-enactment in Facebook of the 1935 novel "Salwàre oder Die Magdalena von Bozen," by Carl Zuckmayer
called The Moons Ride Over, after the novel's English translation title. His work also includes translations from Finnish and the Veps language
. Gabel's translations typically attempt a relatively literal portrayal of the content, while largely ignoring editorial conventions and appropriateness of style and voice.
with rough spare illustrations, using alcohol to deliberately influence the voice and aptitude of the writing. In "How to Read a Book" at Locust Projects in Miami, Gabel created "Steinbeck-Dostoyevsky-Beckett-Bernhard", an awkward large-scale portrait on the wall accompanied by a 3-page single-sentence caption, written in haste during his short stay on site, a long-spun thread running successively trough one theme each from four novels that the artist had recently read simultaneously.
and bibliographic coupling
. Gabel has published articles in "Knowledge Organization" and "Collection Management", and has presented papers at the Ninth International ISKO Conference, Vienna, July 4–7, 2006, and at the 2009 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, November 6–11, 2009.
Biography
Gabel was born in in Portland, OR. Having spent his childhood years in Decatur, NE, he completed a BFA at Kansas State UniversityKansas State University
Kansas State University, commonly shortened to K-State, is an institution of higher learning located in Manhattan, Kansas, in the United States...
in 1992, and an MFA at Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute
Pratt Institute is a private art college in New York City located in Brooklyn, New York, with satellite campuses in Manhattan and Utica. Pratt is one of the leading undergraduate art schools in the United States and offers programs in Architecture, Graphic Design, History of Art and Design,...
in 1995. His first solo exhibition in New York City took place at Spencer Brownstone Gallery in 2001-02, and was called a "season highlight" by The New Yorker. The show was also reviewed in Flash Art by Massimiliano Gioni. He has most recently exhibited work in "Monanism", the inaugural exhibition at the Museum of Old and New Art
Museum of Old and New Art
The Museum of Old and New Art is an art museum located within the Moorilla winery on the Berriedale peninsula in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. It is the largest privately funded museum in Australia. The museum presents antiquities, modern and contemporary art from the David Walsh collection...
in Hobart, Australia. Gabel is currently represented by Spencer Brownstone Gallery in New York, NY.
Drawings with stories
Gabel's small pencil portraits of imaginary figures accompanied by short captions on Paris Bleedproof Paper For Pens, his primary medium and format for over a decade during the 90's and early 2000s, were retrospectively viewed as representative of the "dumb line" trend which became prevalent in the visual arts, drawing in particular.1 Since then, Gabel has been drawing on clay board and smooth-sanded gesso board, in addition to paper. His work now typically involves small-scale portraits or figures rendered from imagination, accompanied by scrawled captions, wholly or partially fictional, which often expand into drawn-out multi-clause or run-on sentences. The stories often begin with the phrase “Some fucker…” or a variation, like "Some fucking woman in her 40's…" "Some guy from the 1970's…" or simply "A fucker…"2 This caption style has become one of the more recognizable features identified with Gabel’s work.Translations/Adaptations
Gabel has also exhibited translations of different types of writing, primarily literature, into various formats (bound typed books w/ hand illustrations, audio books, etc.). His translated adaptation of the novella "Vierundzwanzig Stunden aus dem Leben einer Frau"(Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman) by Stephan Zweig, rendered in pencil in large-scale comic book format, and his audio/visual translation/adaptation of "Gladius Dei" by Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
have been exhibited and reviewed repeatedly. In 2009, he created and performed a complete re-enactment in Facebook of the 1935 novel "Salwàre oder Die Magdalena von Bozen," by Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer
Carl Zuckmayer was a German writer and playwright.-Biography:Born in Nackenheim in Rheinhessen, he was four years old when his family moved to Mainz. With the outbreak of World War I, he finished school with a facilitated "emergency"-Abitur and volunteered for military service...
called The Moons Ride Over, after the novel's English translation title. His work also includes translations from Finnish and the Veps language
Veps language
The Veps language , spoken by the Vepsians , belongs to the Finnic group of the Uralic languages...
. Gabel's translations typically attempt a relatively literal portrayal of the content, while largely ignoring editorial conventions and appropriateness of style and voice.
Wall drawings
In addition to the small drawings and translations, Gabel is known for his site-specific drawings and stories on walls, usually in graphite. The images themselves tend to be awkward or inept, as Gabel employs no measurements or other preparation work, regardless of size. The stories which accompany the images on the walls or other surfaces typically develop as a drawing progresses, and are often suggested or driven by the physical spaces, and by conditions relating to the respective exhibitions, such as time limit, allotted space, exhibition content, travel logistics & problems, the artist’s recent readings, etc. For the group exhibition "Off the Beaten Road" at A+D Gallery, Columbia College in Chicago in 2008, installed in conjunction with a display of Jack Kerouac’s manuscript scroll at the college, Gabel created “Lunatic” on the gallery wall during the opening reception in an attempt to translate, adapt, and illustrate a chapter of "Salwàre oder Die Magdalena von Bozen" while drinking numerous servings of alcohol. In a group exhibition in 2010 at Spencer Brownstone Gallery, Gabel likewise created "Märchen der 672. Nacht" and "Reitergeschichte", translations & adaptations of two short works by Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo von Hofmannsthal
Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal ; , was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist.-Early life:...
with rough spare illustrations, using alcohol to deliberately influence the voice and aptitude of the writing. In "How to Read a Book" at Locust Projects in Miami, Gabel created "Steinbeck-Dostoyevsky-Beckett-Bernhard", an awkward large-scale portrait on the wall accompanied by a 3-page single-sentence caption, written in haste during his short stay on site, a long-spun thread running successively trough one theme each from four novels that the artist had recently read simultaneously.
Information Science
In addition to art degrees, Gabel received an MLIS from Long Island University, Brookville, NY in 1999. He has written articles and presented papers on the topics of citation analysisCitation analysis
Citation analysis is the examination of the frequency, patterns, and graphs of citations in articles and books. It uses citations in scholarly works to establish links to other works or other researchers. Citation analysis is one of the most widely used methods of bibliometrics...
and bibliographic coupling
Bibliographic coupling
Bibliographic coupling occurs when two works reference a common third work in their bibliographies. The coupling strength is higher the more citations the two bodies have in common, and this coupling is used to extrapolate how similar the subject matter of the two works is...
. Gabel has published articles in "Knowledge Organization" and "Collection Management", and has presented papers at the Ninth International ISKO Conference, Vienna, July 4–7, 2006, and at the 2009 ASIS&T Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, November 6–11, 2009.