Gabriel Correa is a self-taught Colombian plastic artist. He is a highly recognized all-round artist that explores a variety of techniques including painting, sculpture, performance, video and photography. What’s more, Gabriel includes recycled materials in his work and gives them a great meaning, which provides their creations with originality and personality, in addition to contributing to the preservation of the environment.
In 2021, Gabriel developed a series focused on reviewing the territory and its cultural memory, delving into the idea of folklore. This series was called “Narrativas Territoriales Coloquialmente Absurdas” and the artwork “Memorias de una tradición” is an important part of it. It represents a sculptural object in the shape of a house and was exhibited for more than 4 months at the Lehman College Art Gallery! Undoubtedly, “Memorias de una tradición” is full of sense, meaning and memory.
“I run an artist studio that is focused on three lines, the first one is the conception and production of my artistic work, the second one is the accompaniment in artistic processes of other artists or brands, and the third one is training in plastic arts techniques, which includes academic classes, consultancies and much more!”, Gabriel explains.
When he got started in the artistic world, very few people thought that Gabriel would make it because, as he explains, living from art in Colombia is not an easy task. It is a fairly crowded and competitive sector where it is not easy to make money. But Gabriel did not give up, quite the opposite! He continued learning techniques, art history, aesthetics and much more.
Thanks to his perseverance, Gabriel is now an internationally recognized artist who has participated in various international competitions, such as “Performanciar o morir” a Performance festival in Norogachi, Mexico and “Postsida y otras joterias” in Queretaro, Mexico.
“For me, success is knowing that one of my artworks has been in different places in my city, in my country and even in my continent. So, it nourishes the viewer with new perspectives and at the same time it nourishes itself with cultural, economic and aesthetic value”, Gabriel adds.
Since he was a child, Gabriel knew that he wanted to have his own business, and he tried in various ways! Fortunately, he discovered art shortly thereafter and he found his passion and his life purpose. Art gave him the opportunity to express his thoughts, emotions, knowledge and ways of seeing life.
“Art brought rebellion out of me and gave it a purpose, it inspired my being sociable and helped me understand my life mission in relation to my social work. I founded my art studio in 2010 and while I was doing artistic production, I was also training, accompanying the processes of other artists and learning from their mistakes and from my own”, he adds.
Gabriel manages to stand out from other similar artists because he works with various techniques and combines them to produce an incredible and highly original result. His technical diversity, far from weakening his artistic production, strengthens it by providing him with various tools that allow the artist to communicate what he wants. For example, “Memoria de una tradición” is a set of architectural, sculptural and pictorial techniques!
Gabriel is stepping into 2023 with big plans and aspirations, as he describes them below:
“I’m planning to close the sale of the artwork that is now in New York. I want it to find a home! I am also working on the coming trips of the serie “Narrativas Territoriales Coloquialmente Absurdas”, I want it to go to places outside of Colombia. In addition, the serie “Relatos de un paisa”, which is focused on talking about Antioquia’s folklore, will begin to circulate internationally. I want to position my artworks more strongly in Latin America, as well as in North America and Europe. I am working on that, so that later on all the folklore, cultural and territorial tradition that my work evokes is flooding Asia and Oceania.”
Without a doubt, Gabriel’s story is a source of hard work and inspiration not only to artists, but to all of us. To find out more about his work, follow him on Instagram here and check out his website here.
