Solo Show - April 10th - May 15th 2010

Artists Statement
Kyle Knobel is an image-maker working primarily with drawing, painting and screen print; his focus on drawn, singular forms is expressed by his characteristic bouncing yet precise line style.

 

"I draw from actual life, using primary sources. For me, there is more truth in that. Relying on secondary images, say photographs, results in a flattened, dead reality. I need to see how something sits on a surface. I want to create lively, vital, even iconic images."

 

In this series of still lifes, Knobel draws from his immediate surroundings. Objects are depicted without context of a background, yet remain anchored in space with a shadow. These isolated tableaus function as characters that share darkly humorous tales of modern love, drink, lust, possession, self-deception and foolishness. 

 

“I love the role of the storyteller, whether in the guise of the singer, poet or visual artist. To me, the darker the story, the greater the possibility for humor and insight. Laugh or cry, I say."

 

These narratives rely in part on cultural sampling, and yet remain open to interpretation. There isn't a sense that you have to drink the Kool-Aid per se, but there is a definite point of view. His strategy of hijacking logos and graphics in commercially produced goods seems to suggest there is a shared story of our culture. Yet there is a reverse mapping of shared desires and fears displayed wholeheartedly on his objects, on his own terms. With a style that is part punk, part design, part Saturday morning cartoon, Knobel's voice questions, criticizes and celebrates the ludicrousness of it all.

CV

Solo Exhibits

Eleanor Harwood Gallery. Drawings. San Francisco CA April 2010

Triple Base. On Losing & Finding One's Line. Installation. San Francisco CA 2005

Edo Salon. Drawings/installation. San Francisco CA 2003

Adobe Books Gallery. Drawings/installation. San Francisco CA 2003

Build Gallery. Paintings. San Francisco CA 2003

Artists Television Access (ATA). Window installation. San Francisco CA 2002

Bevy Gallery. Paintings. Dunkirk NY 1996

Group Exhibits

Adobe Books.  stacked/multiplied.  San Francisco CA 2011

The Hallway Gallery. Pattern. Mixed Media on paper. San Francisco CA 2009

The LAB. Postcard 11. Mixed Media on paper. San Francisco CA 2008

Eleanor Harwood Gallery. Miami Art Fair (Aqua). Books. Miami FL 2007

Eleanor Harwood Gallery. Albedo. Book. San Francisco CA 2007

Adobe Books. Miami Art Fair (Aqua). Work on paper. Miami FL 2006

Remote Satellite. Drawings. Oakland CA 2005

Headlands Center for the Arts. Close Calls. Book. Sausalito CA 2004

Mimi Barr Gallery. Books!Awesome! Artist Book. San Francisco CA 2004

Tangent Gallery. The Bay Area Show. Book. Detroit MI 2004

Southern Exposure. Monster Drawing Rally. Drawing. San Francisco CA 2004

21 Grand Gallery. Place-Oriented Work. Video installation. Oakland CA 2003

The LAB. Q: Where you at? Drawings. San Francisco CA 2003

Quotidian Gallery. Blood Show. Drawing. San Francisco CA 2002

The LAB. The Last Hurrah. Installation. San Francisco CA 2002

Independent Media Center. 2 Decades of Ephemeral Art. Seattle WA 2001

Southern Exposure. Postcard 5. Video stills on paper. San Francisco CA 2001

DeBasement. Installation San Francisco CA 2000

4 Walls. Postcard 4. San Francisco CA 1999

Gallery 82. Allentown. Paintings. Buffalo NY 1998

Ford Street Lofts. Break My Heart 14. Installation. Buffalo NY 1998

Napoleon Street Studios. First Annual. Paintings San Francisco CA 1997

UC Berkeley gallery. 21 pieces Left to Right. Paintings. Berkeley CA 1995

JT Christian Gallery. Explorations in Paint II. Paintings. Fredonia NY 1995

Screenings

Adobe Books. Video Night. Video: Taraval. San Francisco CA 2002

21 Grand. T-10 festival. Video: Taraval. Oakland CA 2001

Artists Television Access (ATA). Reallocate This. Video: OK. San Fran. CA 2001

John Simms Center. New Work. Video: OK. San Francisco CA 2001

Artists Television Access (ATA). Video: Street Sweeper. San Francisco CA 2000

Special Projects

Record/Play 001. Book of images by K. Knobel. 44 pp., color 2007

For Their Love... Book of security envelopes. 2nd edition, 40 pp., b&w xerox 2007

Toward the Light. Book w/ I. Keir, design/photos by K. Knobel. 52pp. color 2007

Satellite magazine. Interview w/ doc film-maker J. Jones. 4 pp., color 2006

SECA Catalog. SF MOMA. Cover image for Sarah Cain exhibit. 1 p., b&w 2006

Record/Play 000. Book of interviews of Bay Area visual artists. 50 pp, color 2004

SF MOMA. 10 minute video for museum visitors. 2002

Somatic Lapse. Performance w/ R. Nordschow. Video by K. Knobel. 21 Grand. Oakland CA 2002

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. San Francisco CA 2002

New Langton Arts. San Francisco CA 2001

Location/Dislocation. Guerilla outdoor video projection. San Francisco CA 2001

Appointment Project. Performance and book. Bay Area CA 2000

Secret Box. Performance. Secrets exchanged in person & anonymously.

Hallwalls Gallery. Buffalo NY 1999

Anon Salon. San Francisco CA 1998

Curatorial Projects

Another Step Forwards, Walking Backwards.

Artists: Allissa Anderson, Matt Furie, Reggie Sparks, Minnette Lehmann.

Adobe Books. 2004

What We Saw When We Got There.

A show of conceptually based drawing, with ‘drawing’ defined in its broadest possible terms. The work is grounded in an investigation of place, yet are disparate in focus & content, ranging from digital projection & video to maps & architectural plans.

Co-curator: Michael Damm.

Artists: Nathan Burazer, Sarah Cain, Rita DiLorenzo, Amanda Eicher, Lucy Harvey, Amanda Hughen, Zoey Kroll, Albert Reyes, Jennifer Starkweather.

The LAB. 2003

Q: Where are you at? Q: Where is your drawing at?

A group drawing show without theme nor guiding hand. Work for sale during the exhibit’s opening night.

Co-curator: Michael Damm.

Forty artists participate

The LAB. 2003

4-in-1 Project Room.

An exhibition of four solo artists’ projects housed within one gallery space. The show proposes an alternative to the traditional theme show format by foregrounding the autonomy of each artists’ work, and opening up the possibility of overlapping readings while leaving that space unmediated.

The LAB. 2002

The LAB Foyer Program

Start a new project space that is to host a series of one person shows. Focus on artists at the beginning of their public careers.

Solo shows: Tohru Kanayama, Amy Rathbone, Jo Jackson, Sarah Cain, Darren Jenkins, Leslie Henslee.

The LAB. 2000-2002