Greg Gossel

The concept behind the work featured in Numb is rooted in Gossel’s social commentary on the over-saturation of visuals and information in contemporary culture – the numbing effect that it has on our minds, and the desire it creates for us to deaden our senses further (in some cases with chemical substances). Gossel explores the former through a series of heavily layered panels, covered in cultural ephemera, weathered away in areas to reveal high-end luxury logos and cultural symbols, and the latter though a collection of hard-edged mixed-media portraits of 20^th century pop culture icons who have fallen victim to their own overblown, all-consuming celebrity: including Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, and Jimi Hendrix, among others.  Money, fame and tragedy are overarching themes within the series.