Gabriella’s mixed media paintings reflect on the emotional landscapes we traverse in connecting to the world around us. Her work aims to investigate the intricacies of self-preservation, transformation and narrative, as the mind and body process a traumatic experience and how we move through life after it.
The work surveys several species - from plant to animal to human - and focuses on the protective, communicative and life giving parts that adapt and evolve, while holding an awareness of potential future threat.
Perceptivity develops as its own independent sense and morphs into a new skill: an aid that scans, interprets and adjusts to maneuver through ones’ environment.
A series of fractured marks and plumes of atmospheric traces evokes the passage of an entity through space. Broken lines of nervous hands attempt to mend, twist, and grasp. Webs of silky milkweed seeds billow, scatter, then wither while fuzzy anthers, tracked and trailing, are spliced by time. The sound waves of birds and whales, whose pitch rendered indecipherable to humans, rupture and radiate. Drawn marks scrape and carve their way into the plaster’s surface, a material whose inherent sensitivity holds dueling qualities of fragility and strength.
Line mirrors vulnerability; both describe the distance between two points, with the ability to simultaneously separate and connect.
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 Apparel Design from the Art Institute of Portland.
She has exhibited work in galleries throughout the Hudson Valley and NYC, as well as Venice, Italy; London, England; Portland, OR; Vancouver, WA; Laguna Beach, CA; and invited to contribute to the exhibition “Preparing” at The Craft Contemporary Museum in Los Angeles, CA.
Kirby designed and constructed “An Unearthening,” a public art commission at North Mountain Park Nature Center in Ashland, Oregon, and developed an environmental art education program serving schools and at-risk youth groups.
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.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Education
Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, in partnership with Tufts University, Boston, MA
2005-2009
Associates Degree in Apparel Design, High Honors Award
Art Institute of Portland, Portland, OR
2010-2013
Selected Solo & Group Exhibitions
2026
Solo Exhibit — Future Light, Castello 925, Venice, Italy
2025
Forest Bathing, Invitational Group Show, The Richards Gallery at Opus 40, Saugerties, NY
2024
Two-person show — Improvisation, TKG Real Estate Gallery, Kingston, NY
2023
Paperworks, B.J. Spoke Gallery, Huntington, NY
Members Show, Kleinert James Center for the Arts, Woodstock, NY
2022
Oppositions, The Holy Art Gallery, London, England
Women In Art, Las Laguna Art Gallery, Laguna Beach, CA
2021
Solo Exhibit — Gathered, Absorbed, Carried, Women’s Work Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
Something Blue, Emerge Gallery NY, Saugerties, NY
Friends of Women’s Work Art, Invitational Group Show, Women’s Work Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
Petit, Emerge Gallery NY, Saugerties, NY
Small Works, Medford Arts Center, Medford, NJ
2020
Solo Exhibit — Episode, Salvage Works, Portland, OR
Artist Contributor for Preparing, Craft Contemporary Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Rhythm, Columbia Center for the Arts, Hood River, OR
Abstrakt, Emerge Gallery NY, Saugerties, NY
Luna, Splendorporium Gallery, Portland, OR
Masked, Art JuXtapose Gallery, Rosendale, NY
Until We Meet Again, Treat Gallery, New York, NY
Shown From Afar: Art during the Pandemic, Women’s Work Art Gallery, Poughkeepsie, NY
2019
Small Works, Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY
New New Show, River Street Studios, Portland, OR
Lady Makers, Portland, OR
2018
Small Works, Limner Gallery, Hudson, NY
Politiks: The Art of Deception, Art at the Cave Gallery, Vancouver, WA
2013
Real Things, Enso Wine Bar, Portland, OR
2009
Oil and Milk, Baag Gallery, Boston, MA
ArtForce, Cambridge Arts Council Gallery, Cambridge, MA
Permanent Collection
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Main Library, Boston, MA
Public Art Commission
“An Unearthening” North Mountain Park Nature Center, Ashland, OR, 2010
Designed and built the site-specific, public art installation, as well as developed and taught environmental art lesson plans for visiting student and at-risk youth groups. The program has since been taught annually by the center.