Opening reception Friday, March 23th 2017
Doors open at 6:30 PM
Much of Sanchez’s work centers around the tension of duality,
or what she calls “straddling the line”: the line between Chicano
and American, personal and universal, the artist and the
audience. Sanchez negotiates her place between these two
worlds by incorporating disparate elements from one side — sign
paintings throughout the downtown area, scenes from family
photos, her own signature color palette — with the formal
techniques she learned as a Fine Arts major and working in the
commercial design field. She prompts the audience to
code-switch alongside her, forcing them to think about their
own assumptions.
The essential questions being asked through her paintings are
the same questions her personal identity challenges. When is
art ‘Latinx’ and when is it ‘American’, when is it personal and
when is it universal? Through the melange of her paintings
Gabriella suggests the answer is all of the above, always.
ABOUT THE ARITST
Gabriella Sanchez is a multidisciplinary artist from Los Angeles.
She received her BFA in Fine Art in 2011. After graduating
Gabriella moved to Paris where she worked as an au pair and
freelance graphic designer. It was at that time that she began
to integrate graphic design with her fine art practice. This
resulted in a commission for her first commercial art project by
the French magazine, Le Particulier. Sanchez honed her skills
working in-house with Los Angeles based design and fashion
brands until 2016 when she established an art studio under her
own name. Since then, she’s done work for major brands like
Nike, Toyota, Tumblr, Planned Parenthood, The White House,
Refinery29, and Headspace, creating a colorful array of artwork
in various mediums. As well as exhibiting her paintings and
installations both locally and abroad.
Gabriella is currently preparing for a solo exhibit with Charlie
James Gallery in Los Angeles opening July 2018.