For her first solo exhibition in São Paulo, at Galeria Recorte, Gabriella Garcia exhibits two series of abstract works, which dialogue with two sculptures and a video. Balance, in the spiritual sense, is the idea that guides the series. Unstable by definition, it is represented here as an ideal goal to be achieved through everyday experiences and personal choices. In the “Mirror” series, composed of landscapes and minerals clippings, Gabriella starts from her personal experience to portray the different life hypotheses that arise in the existence of each individual when he is in the process of seeking serenity. The works suggest the constant and conscious work that this exercise entails and the crossroads that punctuate the path of this quest. The artist portrays the attempt to reach the ideal represented, sometimes abstractly, with fragments of light landscapes hovering over dense environments, sometimes more literally, with one hand crossing the work. This equilibrium seems to exist when illustrated by floating stones or standing in stable foundations. Translating the fragility of this experience, a sculpture composed of a crystal and a mirror shard resting in precarious balance on a piece of glass, superimposed on a piece of cement, reinforces the artist's proposal. Concluding the series “Mirrors, Gabriella explores the moving image in a never-ending, looping video. Looping through the rubble of the fire at the São Paulo High School of Arts and Crafts, this video brings the art movement back to a place that is supposedly dead, reflecting the construction of the female image, taking new paths in the perspective of balance. On another frequency, but pursuing the same intention of stability, the artist starts from the embryonic state to approach the relationship of the exterior with the interior, using in the series “Egg the shape of the egg. Through an abstract work focused on the spatial evolution of the subject, the works question the need to adapt to external circumstances to achieve inner peace. The purified forms, with neutral colors with predominance of white, remind us of the purity of the being before its exposure to the world and the way of adjusting or not to it. In this context, the clipping and overlay set creates a timeline. The purest forms, almost free of influence, define the beginning of this line to evolve in space, dialoguing with the outside. The shapes sometimes shrink under the pressure of the set frame. In others, they resist this force and overflow beyond it to eventually incorporate the tools and knowledge available around them. This process allows a temporary balance to be achieved, thus evoking a strengthening of the internal structure. Dialoguing with the series, a fragile ovoid clay sculpture, protected by glass walls and perched on a solid wooden base, echoes the conversation between the inside and the outside. The asymmetry that permeates the show, through the cuts, overlaps, shapes, landscapes and minerals, synthesizes the precariousness of balance in its attempt to deal with chaos, remembering the impermanence of progress and life.

​

-JULIE DUMONT