Although generational trauma informs her ethereal works on paper and gestural works on canvas, Kirby’s natural forms, with their trembling edges, traverse the internal landscape of vulnerability and suggest a life at once familiar, spliced with a kind of space that hovers on the cusp of memory.
Gabriella Kirby holds a BFA from Tufts University and The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, as well as an AA with High Distinction in Design from the Art Institute of Portland. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries throughout the Hudson Valley and NYC, as well as Portland, OR; Vancouver, WA; Laguna Beach, CA; and London, England. Her projects include a public art earthwork in Ashland, OR, and an installation artist contributor at The Craft Contemporary Museum, Los Angeles, CA. Her paintings have been featured in Vanity Fair (London, UK). Her work is held in the private collection at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. She lives and works in upstate New York.
Possessing a tender biology, Gabriella Kirby’s work is clearly defined with crisp energy and perceived movement, reckoning with the intricacies of inherent darkness and evoking the potential of future light.
World War II trauma led Kirby’s grandparents to leave their Italian mountain village and ultimately emigrate to the United States. Two generations and seventy-five years later, Gabriella Kirby returns with her own family for an exhibition of her artwork during the 61st Venice Biennale and for a reunion with her matrilineal community of Vestenavecchia in the foothills of the Dolomites.
Gabriella Kirby | Future Light surveys several species - from plant to animal to human - and focuses on the protective, communicative and life-giving parts that continue to adapt and evolve, while holding an awareness of potential future threats. Although generational trauma informs these ethereal works on paper and gestural works on canvas, Kirby’s natural forms, with their trembling edges, traverse the internal landscape of vulnerability and suggest a life at once familiar, spliced with a kind of space that hovers on the cusp of memory.
Possessing a tender biology, Gabriella Kirby’s work is clearly defined with crisp energy and perceived movement, reckoning with the intricacies of inherent darkness and evoking the potential of future light.
