Gabe Cortese’s paintings reflect worlds built around queer narratives that explore yearning and affection through a lens of comedy and drama. He frequently incorporates familiar compositions found throughout art history, particularly religious paintings from the Renaissance and Mannerist periods. Cortese subverts the motifs found during those periods, like The Dead Christ or The Adoration of Christ, by using those themes to develop narratives around queerness, sexuality, and relationships. The figures found in Cortese’s paintings are an amalgamation of aspects of his and his partner’s bodies, using this avatar to investigate the themes found within his works.
Gabe Cortese (b. 1994 in Key West, Florida) received his BFA in 2017 and his MFA in 2021 from the University of Central Florida. Recent solo exhibitions include Soft Spot, G/art/en Gallery, Como, Italy and Nothing Good Happens at Night, M+B, Los Angeles, CA. Recent group exhibitions include Fluid Suns and Vitamin C, G/art/en Gallery, Italy; Lost in a Spectacle, Woaw Gallery, China; and Slow Songs, Quappi Projects, Louisville, KY. His work is also in the collection at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; the Orlando Museum of Art; X Museum; and the Tom of Finland Foundation. Gabe Cortese lives and works in Providence, Rhode Island.