Gabrielle Graessle

Freight+Volume presents Balla Balla, an exhibition of recent paintings by Andalusia-based artist Gabrielle Graessle.

The paintings of Swiss-born artist Gabrielle Graessle depict complex emotional and social realities with an almost hieroglyphic directness. Reveling in color and the use of spectacular, or otherwise unconventional materials (such as glitter), her wilding use of paint and pigment is tempered by a sense of minimalism which might be called austere—if not for the fact that her paintings are so childlike and fun.

Graessle’s work generally tends towards a formalism which generates its own symbology. Her allusions to themes like war, feminism, sexuality and love, are all expressed in ways that verge on abstraction. But this movement away from the particulars of experience to universal representations isn't navigated arbitrarily. A continuous sense of lightness, play, exuberance radiates from her figures—even when the themes she's working around might otherwise appear tragic.

Wielding riotous colors and graphitti-like language to communicate her singular vision, one of Graessle’s untitled pieces—composed of acrylics, spray paint and glitter—especially stands out for its quasi-mythic character. An off-centered horse constitutes the theme of the picture: as a figure, this horse almost seems on the brink of escaping from the dimensions of the frame. With an engorged head lolling against its leftmost edge, his overtly large presence lends the painting an almost comical aspect, while also suggesting the impossibility of escaping the illusive realm of paint and pigment into the spatial possibilities afforded by our everyday reality.

Many of Graessle’s paintings portray women in various states of dishabille; but the sitters in her portraits never feel objectified or exposed. Rather than being lewds, in each painting of a woman’s body her face is emphasized—often arranged into an expression that resembles a hieratic eye gazing back at the viewer who gazes at her.

In one particular work—also untitled, yet dating from 2022—a reclining woman seems to look out of the painting towards the viewer. More confident than coy, the elliptical curve which constitutes her mouth, like a Cheshire Cat’s smile, is set against a horizon neatly divided between earth and sky, the tellurian and the cosmic. This supple division works to foreground the winsome character of the figure’s face, adding a heightened significance to the elements composing the picture.

Graessle’s canvases distinguish themselves from traditional abstraction by bringing every shape, every suggestion of color, towards the convergence of a decentralized theme. Her reliance on natural form never fails to engage with socially astute insights. Emerging from the serrated edges of her craftsman-like abstraction, nature itself, in all its spontaneity, seems to glaze the surface of each work like a spectral amber. Within this glow, Graessle gives expression to the nature of happiness and the meaning of revolt, all the while mimicking a child’s naivety.

Gabrielle Graessle was born in Zurich, Switzerland in 1956 and studied at Zurich University of the Arts. For 15 years, she was represented by various galleries in Switzerland. At the beginning of 2000, she and her partner emigrated to France and later Spain, where they built and redesigned old houses. In 2015, she settled down in Andalusia. She decided to immerse herself completely in her imaginary world again and to express herself in large format, colored, intuitive and figurative paintings. Her studio is located in an isolated group of old cottages - there are no distractions, and she can fully concentrate on her work in a secluded setting in nature. Recent exhibitions include Pulpo Gallery (Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany), Freight+Volume (New York, NY), Shitart Club (Los Angeles, CA), Beers London (London, UK), and Alzueta Gallery (Barcelona, Spain). Her work is included in significant private collections worldwide.