Statement
My body exists as both center and symbol in my work. Positioned in the intimate domestic space of my residence, the emotionally charged self-portraits I create serve as points of departure for exploring larger topics of interest – grief, desire, anxiety, death, spirituality, femininity, and dreams. Similar to the intimacy of the innerworkings of one’s psyche, utilizing my domestic space serves as the physical manifestation of my inner world.
The narratives I engage in emerge from the well of my lived experiences. However, as I move through the process of creating a work external associations begin to reveal themselves to me - connecting Self to World. The pieces become a kind of cataloguing of my journey into myself as I experience life, while simultaneously acting as a means for me to become bigger than my own body and experience.
My likeness enters into the realm of the symbol, becoming an armature for a larger poetry and longing. The tension between specificity and to expand beyond that specificity goes expressed (but ultimately unresolved). I strive to actively live my questions. The questions and unresolvedness of it all is life giving – to have the questions resolve themselves would result in the need to create these images to cease.
CV
b. 1999
Education:
2017-2022 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Certificate in Painting
2020 Ramon Alexander Hurtado's Figure Drawing Workshop
2019 New York Academy of Art Summer Undergraduate Residency Program
2016 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts Summer Drawing Intensive
Awards:
2023 Earl T. Donelson Figure Painting Award
2022 Richard C. von Hesse Memorial Scholarship
Gross McCleaf Gallery Prize
The Charles Toppan Prize
The Lance Roy Lauffer Memorial Prize – Honorable Mention
The John Bradley Sutton Annual Portrait Award – Honorable Mention
2020 The Franklin C. Watkins Memorial Grant
The Lucille Sorgenti Scholarship
2019 The Robert and Alice Carlen Memorial Endowmen
Exhibitions:
2024 "Reverie" Lillian's, Philadelphia, PA
2023 "Like a Devouring Fire" Blah Blah Gallery, Philadelphia, PA
"Chroma" Paradigm Gallery, curated by Create! Magazine and PxP Contemporary, Philadelphia, PA
PAFA Annual Student Exhibition, Fisherbrooks Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
"Anything Goes" Anne Bryan Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
"Nurture" Cafe FMC on the 25th floor, FMC Tower Cira Centre South, Philadelphia, PA
2022 "Size Matters in Art" Anne Bryan Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
"Confluence" Zaki Gallery, International Records, Newark, DE
PAFA Annual Student Exhibition, Fisherbrooks Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2021 "Art From Art" Anne Bryan Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
2019 "A Good Habit Formed: Examples of the PAFA Drawing Culture" Anne Bryan Gallery, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA
New York Academy of Art Undergrad Residency Program Show, New York Academy of Art, New York, New York
Bibliography:
2023 "Artist Gabrielle Dobrzelewski" I Like Your Work Podcast
"Emotionally Charged Self-Portraits by Gabrielle Dobrzelewski" Create! Magazine
Teaching, Lectures, and Demonstrations:
2023 Visiting Artist In Kenneth Nicholson's Painting 1 Class - Zoom lecture for University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg
Instructor at Fleisher Art Memorial 2022 - present
2022 Visiting Artist to UArts, guest in Darryl Smith's Painting 101 Class - Lecture on Analogous Color
Guest Artist Lecture in Jill Rupinski's class
Teaching Assistant, Fleisher Art Memorial Fall 2022
Achieving Luminous Color in Oil Paint Zoom course
Art at Noon - Celebrate the ASE: Featured Undergraduate Students