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Art Portfolio

Welcome to Gabriela (Gaby) Torres Vanegas’ Art portfolio! 
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Gaby is a multidisciplinary artist mainly working in digital media and  painting. Through her paintings, GIFs, and AR experiences, she hopes to elicit a childlike wonder while also stimulating critical thinking.

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" My work examines and questions the different systems we live by that shape our social life, while also limiting it. It aims to elicit meaningful and uncomfortable conversations that bring art at the political, social, economic, and intellectual levels of discussion. I aim to expose our shared existence by drawing inspiration from fairy tales, artistic figures - like Van Gogh, Dalí, and Toulouse Lautrec -, human psychology, fiction books, the dense diversity of existing human circles, and the complexity of our societal constructs. The thematic in my art is a dialogue between similarities and differences, the real and the unreal chains that brings us together, but paradoxically pushes us apart. My goal is to make even the most sadistic and apathetic person stop, look at my work, and be willing to open the room for uncomfortable conversations that should happen."

Selected work

Cover_Trigger image.jpg

 *AR installation piece for the 2024 NEXTCOMIC Festival 

 

This is an AR installation piece narrates the modern everyday. When was the last time you watch a flower bloom? Accompanied with the Orchestra of Anton Bruckner, the work brings the viewer to an infinite cycle of the modern every day where every day is the same day

AR with Trigger image

Everyday is the Same Day

Utopian Fight.jpg

This is a collection of 4 painting that narrate a journey of the self towards an utopia where the body is detached from a system that holds it down

Tetralogy, acrylic on canvas

Enlightenment Series

detail_edited.jpg

For this Augmented Reality (AR) piece, Gaby worked with nostalgia and the inevitable distance to her culture as she resides in Canada. The work brings the viewer into a virtual dinner table composed of 2d images that showcases all the food and iconic items of her city, Cali. As It references Gaby's reality, it can only be accessed through a screen

AR Installation with Anchor Image

My Colombian Dinner Table

El Latir de un Lugar Desconocido.png

This painting is a self portrait of Gaby that aims to answer the question "what does it means to meet new people?" The viewer is invited to see and explore the areas within the space. Some of these areas are wide open while others have limited visibility

36" x 48", Acrylic on canvas

El Latir de un Lugar Desconocido

both.jpg

This project is a video loop that deliberately opens a conversation with and within the viewer on hookup culture. Gaby's work opens the question to whether hooking up is truly a liberating action against an oppressive system

Video Loop

Absurd Cycle of Hooking Up

All Work

Inspirada por 'El Venado Herido' de Frida Khalo

18" x 24" Oil on Canvas

Inspired on Frida Khalo's Wounded Deer

Utopian Fight.jpg

Tetralogy, acrylic on canvas

Enlightenment

detail_edited.jpg

AR, Acher Image

My Colombian Dinner Table

IMG_2860 2.jpg

30" x 40" acrylic on canvas

Woman

both.jpg

GIF

Absurd Clycle of Hooking up

Women are just more beautiful.png

Short Story

Women are Just More Beautiful

TORRESVANEGAS-LA VIDA, EL LATIR, LA ESPERANZA.heic

30" x 48" Acrylic on Canvas

La Vida, El Latir, La Esperanza

the David and Goliath Mate.heic

18" x 24" acrylic on wood pannel

The David and Goliath Mate

Darts_scene.jpg

GIF

Target

El Latir de un Lugar Desconocido.png

36" x 48" Acrylic on canvas

El Latir de un Lugar Desconocido

TORRESVANEGAS- SERENDIPIA.jpg

Oil and Acrylic on loose canvas

Serendipia

gabytv99_A MOTH'S LOVE STORY.jpg

30" x 40" acrylic on canvas

A Moth's Love Story

Artist Bio

Gabriela (Gaby), born in Cali, Colombia, is a multidisciplinary artist whose main mediums are  digital media and painting, particularly in oil and acrylic. Her work provokes mindful reflection on cultural norms, barriers, and societal issues. A self-taught artist, Gaby discovered her passion for the arts at a later age and has pursued it passionately. Holding an undergraduate degree in Visual Arts with a minor in Psychology from the University of Victoria, her academic journey provided a foundation for her exploration of the human psyche through artistic expression. Notably, she was awarded the  2022/23 Takao Tanabe Undergraduate Award in Visual Arts, a testament to her dedication. Her work has been on exhibitions such as "YOU ARE WELCOME" at the Pat Martin Bates Gallery in Victoria, BC, and "NEXTCOMIC 2024" in Linz, Austria. A central staple in her practice is the incorporation of the  primary colors (yellow, blue, and red) as Easter eggs to honor her Colombian roots and symbolize everything, as colors originate from the three primaries.

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