I love that my paintings look realistic from far, but up close as I work it’s just abstract colour and shapes—like an illusion.
Celine Gabrielle
CANADA
Artist
I love bright, bright colors, in big hunks and chunks. Details zoomed in on. Light and shadows, folded in on themselves to present something altogether different but recognizable. Alluring and intriguing. Never boring. Always engaging. Right now that comes out as paintings, on big canvases, close-up slightly abstract and yet incredibly crisp at the same time.
As a child of the ’80s/90’s not only was I influenced by the bold in-your-face neon colors, big shoulder pads, and modern technology takeover, but I was also greatly influenced by both my baby boomer parents and my grandparents. I’m very inspired by pop culture, fashion, style, design, and architecture across many generations as far back as the 1920s art Deco and flapper girls right through to the 2000s mega stars like Lady Gaga and the haute couture trends of today. As a self-taught artist, I’m influenced by the well-known artists I had access to, many popularized in pop culture like Tamara de Lempicka, Rene Magritte, Andy Warhol, and Pablo Picasso.
My work takes from my obsession with fashion and that the clothes we wear are how we tell the world who we are, or maybe who we aspire to be. Sometimes it speaks our culture and can connect us to a place or time in history. Sometimes it blurs the lines of all that. It always tells a story.
I start with an image or a piece of clothing that inspires me. It has to speak to me. I’m slow. I work in many layers. I start with acrylic to block in main colors and shapes quickly. Then I switch to oils. I take my time carefully studying my references and refining them section by section.
I love that my paintings look realistic from afar, but up close as I work it’s just abstract colors and shapes—like an illusion.
I create because it’s fun, it challenges me and gives me energy. I’m a champion of color and exuberance. I want the joy and pleasure I have in making my works to go with them. Like coming home to a bouquet of wildflowers on the kitchen table—an unexpected pop, a wow moment on an ordinary day.
Growing up in the southern US, I quickly learned there was a certain expectation of how to “properly” be a woman: now, I challenge what that looks like, using performed femininity as a tool to reveal not only gender disparities, but also to illuminate the relentless critique and politicization of the female body. Instead of hiding or denying femme aesthetics and female sexuality, my pieces embrace, highlight, and empower them, while acknowledging all the awkwardness, humor, and theatricality they entail. My work is a balancing act between sensual forms and playful materials. By augmenting erotic, sensual armatures with glistening rhinestones, feathery pom-poms, and candy-colored fabrics, I assign new meanings and connotations to the forms. Using primarily ceramics and fabric, I create sculptures that evoke pieces of oversized jewelry, shoes, and other fashion and domestic items. I begin a piece by sculpting a high-fired ceramic component, painting it, and carefully studding the surface one by one with tiny rhinestones. From here, I will add textile elements as well as beauty supplies materials like hair scrunchies and nail polish. The resulting pieces are flirtatious, attention-seeking, and deceptively superficial. Toying with their own actualities and potential, they can speak—glittery and powerful—to politics in their own voice: excessive, unabashedly hyper-feminine, and most importantly, pink.
Woman of Power
DIRTYLAND universe
Strength and POWER
Female Warriors
Viveros Anti Pinup Girls
Girl Power
- 2022 Toronto, Ontario | The Petroff Gallery, solo show
- 2022 Toronto, Ontario | The Artist Project Toronto, featured artist
- 2021 Salt Springs, British Columbia | Salt Springs National Art Prize Exhibit, finalist
- 2021 New York City, USA | Superfine Art Fair
- 2021 Halifax, Nova Scotia | The Craig Gallery, “Something Completely Different” VANS mentorship exhibit
- 2021 Wolfville, Nova Scotia | Acadia University Art Gallery, “ALONE” group show, curated by Dr. Laurie Dalton
- 2021 Kentville, Nova Scotia | Tides Contemporary Art Gallery, “Vivrant Thang” solo show
Email: [email protected]
