Deep origins

Gaby Grobo’s inspiration is intimately connected to her own life experience. It stems from her childhood and teen years spent in close contact with nature. The composition of her paintings brings in the root, the tree, and the horizon as figurative elements —they are symbols conveying a message. Using them, Gaby achieves a concept expressed through her artistry. Her aesthetics are stated in her representative colors, generally warm, as well as in the texture she adds with determination.

 

In the silence of a pictorial artwork, the artist manages to project us into her universe, the habitat in which she grew up. She leads us into introspection to reflect on the vital nature of our existence, in a world which is, at the very least, tumultuous. The work creates an atmosphere that invites us to grasp the concept it seeks to convey.

 

The winding movement of the roots is accompanied by abstract lines that define the horizon on one side and the earth on the other, where they are rooted. A combination of waves and colors grant a pleasing rhythm to the work; the sounds and silence of the countryside are easy to perceive. And considering the series as a whole, each piece seems to be born from the previous one, while giving birth to the next. Her work contains a visual game where the abstract is partnered with the figurative elements. A waviness between the two styles that gives the piece a rhythm that is hard to ignore. It is not a static work; it is immensely far from geometric rigidity.

 

Her palette is, by choice, generally warm; cool colors appear with deliberate shyness. Perhaps because in nature, the predominant palettes are browns, greens, ochres… And the material that interacts with light emerges accompanying these colors, creating its own shadows, thus giving the artwork an almost endless variation of tones. Volumes that, together with the pigments of the paint, unveil certain depth. It is evident that the material in Gaby’s work constitutes an element that influences the perception of the observer.

 

This series of paintings, which is a tribute to nature, and which stems from the expression of a feeling, embodies an interesting proposal, from my point of view, in the city of New York, where the cold of cement reigns.

 

Eduardo Carballido