Gentlemen's Night Out

Artists Bob Dob, Nathan Ota, and Daniel Peacock are friends. They also share an interest in odd little characters drawn in a cartoony illustrative style that borrows something from the darker humors. So it makes sense that they've formed "The Gentlemen’s Gang" -- a triumvirate of talent that storms the gallery to throw down outrageously adept artwork in an exhibit of the same name. Bob Dob's paintings are preoccupied by bad boys (and, sometimes, girls), those devils who exude rebelliousness whether they're in a divey hotel room or outfitted in a robotic space suit. Ota, too, has drawn his share of robots, but he also delights in the visual pun, such as walking houses "on the move" or a tree stump turned into a turntable playing "a broken record." Ota's drawings have graced the covers of several of Henry Rollins's spoken word CDs, and they share with Rollins a kind of muscular whimsy. Peacock pushes the rubbery lines of mid-century-style cartooning, with bug-eyed men on their last nerve, bears in porkpie hats, monobrowed dogs, and bemused bunnies. The pop-culture references fly past like funny pages in a gale. There are thousands of stories in these paintings and drawings, enough to seed the imaginations of daffy plotlines for the next century. Quick, someone get "The Gentlemen’s Gang" a cartoon channel of their own.
Jan. 4-26, 2008