b.1994 Atlanta, Georgia
Gabrielle Velez received her BFA in Fiber from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD in 2017. Her practice uses textile and drawing practices to probe the acts of language and collecting. Language may manifest verbally but she believes it forms through contact with objects, geography and through her experience of making. Her work explores how material structures reflect the navigation between two places; two languages.
Influenced by the souvenirs and heirlooms from her family roots in Puerto Rico and Georgia, her work uses objects as symbols around the ideas of home and origin. In the studio, material objects are collected as vernacular tools to navigate her own linguistic experiences - arranged, stacked and drawn as if they were words. The stacking of objects; rock on top of base, fruit on top of rock become connected and dependent on each other. Each vignette offers clues around experiences of language. These arrangements are then further explored through embroidery - adding complexity through the interwoven threads connecting with each other.
She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
See more at @_gabyvelez