GABRIELA FARIAS

About the Artist

Gabriela Farias is a Dominican artist who graduated from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2018 with a Bachelor’s in Interior Architecture. After living in several cities of the US for the past 5 years, she returned home to be a part of the emerging art movement that is brewing in her island. 

With a unique understanding of space; Gabriela plays with dimensions and perception of the human eye through a series of sculptures. In her first collection, the artist explores the duality between color, texture and linearity as they impact how the viewer interacts with the piece and moves through space. These characteristics allow the audience to rediscover each work from a new angle and extends an invitation to an introspective reflection on how these pieces affect us. 

Artist Statement 

We all start as one piece that floats in a warm sea. As we grow, layers, colors and shades are added. Always in constant change.

I seek to portray the evolution of such cycle and the detachment of our sense of identity as we face this phenomenon. At the same time, I question how this process awakens a sense of curiosity and forces us to gain conscience of such change through an introspective exploration. 

Through my work I dive into my vague memory archive with the purpose to understand and build a bridge between who I was and who I am today. I explore the idea of an identity refuge that confronts the inevitable evolution of the modern “me” bombarded by a fast world. In this imaginary experiment the memories are reflected through the free geometry of the past. I’m interested in the idea of “self protection”. 

What are our defense mechanisms to hide the vulnerability and dismiss the tears that come with the constant change of identity? Through this process I identify symbolic markers; fragments of my past that live in the present, and how they have changed their form through time. I seek to decode the transformation in which the objects, once they’ve invaded our conscience, change the narrative and our behavior. 

My work has high visual impact thanks to the use of scale, colors and shapes. It’s a forced invitation to make a pause and observe, but without wanting to intimidate thanks to the use of a familiar material; wood. This medium alludes tradition, history and a sense of home we all know. The pieces are the result of a conversation between the past and the present with the uncertainty of the future.