Gabriel Slavitt: Dancing in the Pocket

Babst Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by Gabriel Slavitt. The title of the exhibition, “Dancing in the Pocket,” is a term coined by NFL commentators to describe the intricate footwork of a quarterback within the protected space created by the offensive line.

For Slavitt, this moment is psychological as much as it is physical: complete engagement between mind and body, person and environment, synthesizing analysis and technique. It is striving to be totally present. And not just once, but endlessly. The quarterback steps into the pocket in every single play of the game, regardless of success or failure.

This hyperbolized focus and dogged commitment are reflected in Slavitt’s subject matter as well as his creative technique. His source material continues to originate in his sketchbook drawings, whose gestures are painstakingly enlarged on hand-carved panels. One figure disappears through a doorway. One is frozen in shocked surprise. Another strains, searching through a magnifying glass. Still others lean forward, as if in devotion, or are they banging their heads on the ground in bewilderment?

Long fascinated with the constraints of human knowledge and how people engage with these limits, Slavitt addresses such themes as memory and the search for fulfillment. Always moderated through sharp humor, his laborious artistic practice mirrors the joys and difficulties of these circuitous, truth-searching journeys. 

Gabriel Slavitt  (b. 1988, Park Ridge, IL, lives and works in Los Angeles, CA) received a BFA in Sculpture from Washington University in St. Louis in 2010. In 2024 he completed an artist residency at the Vermont Studio Center.  “Dancing in the Pocket" is his second solo exhibition at Babst Gallery. He has also exhibited work at the University of Georgia, Athens GA; Vielmetter, Los Angeles, CA; Immaterial Projects, New York, NY; Standing Gallery, New York, NY; Elsa Lee Bruno Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, and Ingrams, Los Angeles, CA, amongst others. In 2022, he published the comic book "Master of Return.”  Slavitt’s work is in the permanent collections of Portland State University Art Museum and the Minneapolis Institute of Art.