The materiality experienced through Gabriela Gonzalez Leal's work encompasses the general, and personal, or rather, intimate place materials and objects can hold in our day to day. To understand fully, look closely into her body of work and the strings and knots she stitches. Both literally, when making clothing pieces from paper cuttings she designs and develops, then sews together. And symbolically, on intricate levels the artist transforms objects and puts them into play through her interactions with people.
Of her process, Gabriela says, "I start mainly from the metaphor but also from the concept of PLAY as a process of symbolic creation and representation of reality; then, as a constructive field of identity, through traditional toys that are an important part of popular culture."
GABRIELA GONZALEZ LEAL
Oakland Artists Gallery Spotlight
March 2021