GABRIELLE GRAESSLE

The show explores the concept of loneliness and its many interpretations. According to Gabrielle, an artwork is like a conversation where an artist creates something, but the viewer is who receives the message and gives the work its final meaning. In her new body of work, the Swiss painter takes this statement to its maximum, writing short messages on the canvas, almost giving a sort of caption to each painting, inviting the onlooker to meditate over a certain idea. Each work represents a concept that, when looking at them altogether, tells a cohesive story.

However, Graessle does not want to convey a very specific and closed message, she sees her work as a Veduta, as an open window to the world, where everything depicted has a meaning and a reason for being. Her work is like a magnifying glass where we get to see society, highlighting scenes of our cultural Imagery that can be hopeful, fun and yet sarcastic and harsh. She wants each painting to move the viewer, to awaken their instinct, to evoke perhaps a visceral response from their inner child, she seeks to provoke the most naive, pure, and honest feelings.

I wish that the viewers would interpret my paintings and drawings themselves, for them to smile, to be happy about them. Everyone should do it in their own personal way and maybe rediscover and revitalize their own inner child

In this sense, Graessle could be considered a contemporary vedutisti, depicting a cultural landscape exaggerating its nature, mixing elements that as a general rule shouldn’t be together to convey a message that seems childish but that at its core it is not. She paints from reality, she represents the archetypes of society in a sort of_capricci_, an ultra-contemporary_veduta di fantasia.

Thus, she works intuitively, not following a strict concept but being honest with herself and her need to convey an overall message, one related to the sensitive topics in society, for example, on how luxury sometimes means company, or at least attracts it. How the sumptuary items and their tacit laws make us feel accompanied, how they mark status, and class, or how even some behaviors or routines -like taking a dive in the pool- are daily proofs of luxury that keeps us company.

The show revolves around the pool, the glitter in the water or on the high fashion rings, to be happy, to belong or not...

Graessle talks about a loud luxury, one not afraid of existing, one not judged, free. Where more is more, where golden glitter becomes a bikini and diamonds shine all over the surface of the canvas. A concept of luxury so wide and open that it shows the power of having it all. Having it all to never be lonely, having it all to feel accepted. At the end, it is all about perspective._
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