Known for his monumental figurative paintings, Jason Lee Gimbel renders full figure works through abstraction-expressionist brushwork and vibrant colors. His instinctual approach, random use of color and mark making pushes figurative work to the edges of representation and, in some instances, into abstraction. These painted drawings break up the surface through a visual harmony that disrupts the partially outlining figures, which provides the viewer with a complex balance between the merger of the figure and background.
In addition to painting, Gimbel creates classically informed drawings. He often depicts the human figure with the skin removed to display the musculature. These écorché drawings borrow from Greek mythology, classical sculpture and traditional figure drawing. He incorporates visual metaphors that explore the ephemeral qualities of the yellowing and degrading newsprint on which they are drawn. There is a playful juxtaposition of these large scale drawings with larger than life size staples, magnets and thumb tacks, an optical perception that is often associated with Alice in Wonderland Syndrome.
Jason Lee Gimbel is a fifth generation Colorado native who graduated from Metropolitan State University of Denver and studied Fine Art Drawing and Printmaking. Gimbel has participated in group shows in Denver, Colorado; Athens, Georgia; Astoria, Oregon. His work has been featured in the Manifest Gallery International Painting Annual publication (Cincinnati, OH), PoetsArtists figurative arts publication, and ArtMaze Magazine (London, UK). He has appeared in numerous shows with Space Gallery in Denver, CO. He previously hosted a non-instructive figure drawing workshop in Denver's RINO Arts District.
