John Cobb: In the Chapel and the Woods

Austin artist John Patrick Cobb has created renderings of Biblical imagery for more than three decades. Cobb’s works are inspired by his travels throughout Europe and the religious paintings he encountered in chapels. He is admired for his meticulous and exacting approach to painting and his use of traditional techniques using gold leaf, egg tempera, and classic methods that date back to Byzantine iconographers, to create paintings of Biblical characters and scenes that resemble early Renaissance portraits.

This exhibition features 19 paintings installed in an 11-ft by 16-ft handmade, wooden chapel assembled in the main gallery. Contemporary people of all races and ages appear in Cobb’s recreations of holy imagery. “It’s really an American chapel,” Cobb said, describing his use of a variety of modern individuals. The subjects of his paintings aren’t as predictable as traditional religious works. According to Cobb, painting people of all races, genders and ages is an effort to bridge a span that goes back to holy imagery of the Middle Ages. For more than 30 years, Cobb has worked to create a series of egg tempera and gold leaf paintings to present in a temporary free-standing chapel that can be entered by viewers. This exhibition will also feature meticulously detailed paintings of the Texas landscape.

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