Gabriella GRAF
Augsburg
Lava, water, ore, minerals, and the bones of ancient animals — all forming, dominating, and moulding new universes of harmony and hue.
Message
Travel, landscapes, and a lifelong sensitivity to color, structure, and cultural memory shaped Gabriella’s artistic vision.
She spent three months in Australia, traveling extensively along the Gold Coast and into the wilderness. There, she was deeply moved by the integrity of Aboriginal and cave art — by its primal connection to land, symbol, and time. The vivid colors, the elemental forms, and the accumulated wisdom of over 60,000 years of artistic tradition left a lasting impression on her imagination.
Gabriella also spent four years on the island of Elba, where the sea, shifting light, and rugged landscapes became a continuing source of inspiration. Time in Rome awakened her to the grandeur of towering architecture, while further journeys to Pisa, Sardinia, and Corsica deepened her dialogue with Mediterranean form, texture, and atmosphere.
Her dream remains timeless: a studio in Paris with a view of the Eiffel Tower. The luminous white-and-blue landscapes of Paros inspired her sense of clarity and contrast, while Athens and the Acropolis stirred her awareness of permanence, civilization, and myth.
New York struck her with a different force altogether. Its monumental architecture — the Brooklyn Bridge, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park — revealed a city of scale, reflection, and creative impact. She absorbed New York’s artistic energy as a series of lightning strikes: the subcultural colors of Chinatown, the raucous gospel voices of the Bronx, and murals displayed like raw declarations in open urban galleries.
In the American Southwest, the red phallic stones of New Mexico, the breathtaking vastness of the Grand Canyon, and the champagne air of Santa Fe — with its artist colonies and spiritual atmosphere — expanded her sense of form, space, and sensual intensity.
Exhibitors displayed Gabriella’s work in Florence at a fashion salon, in Munich at Intel and Mercedes, and in Augsburg at several significant venues. Gabriella presented her first major group of Steampunk works at Bahnpark Augsburg, and a local television interview featured her. At the Glaspalast in Augsburg, she held a ten-week exhibition, and she also exhibited her Universe works in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. Her artistic range has extended into stage design for Augsburg’s leading ballet company, and she was the winner of a major commissioned project.
Her work reflects a rare fusion of primal memory, architecture, landscape, and visionary imagination — an art shaped by movement through the world, yet always guided by an inner universe.
Statement
Gabriella Graf, Artist
“Pearls in a Pendant” is how Gabriella Graf describes her creative vitality: a gathering of luminous impressions, elemental forces, and visionary forms. Volcanology and the primal energies of the earth shape her work on one side, and on the other by the vastness of the universe, as well as by the beauty of historic cityscapes such as Venice and Florence. Steampunk is a continual source of inspiration for her imagination — vast machines, old trains, transformers, and robotic structures. Objet trouvé art is another enduring influence.
Gabriella is also a passionate art educator and has been teaching art for over fourteen years.
She creates many of her works en plein air, working in oil on canvas, while also pursuing mixed-media techniques, including copper on timber. She developed a dance series inspired by the performance “Soliterre,” sketching instinctively in the darkness of a theater. After months of experimentation and analysis, she developed a unique process to prevent copper oxidation. These works respond to light in remarkable ways, allowing the colors to shift and come alive.
Travel has been central to Gabriella’s artistic development. She spent three months in Australia, traveling extensively along the Gold Coast and deep into the wilderness. There, the integrity of Aboriginal and cave art profoundly moved her, by its vivid colors, and by its deep connection to landscape, memory, and time. The accumulated wisdom of over 60,000 years of Aboriginal artistic tradition left a lasting mark on her work.
Gabriella also spent four years on the island of Elba, where the sea and rugged landscapes became a continuing source of inspiration. Time in Rome awakened her to the power of monumental architecture, while further journeys to Pisa, Sardinia, and Corsica deepened her dialogue with Mediterranean light, texture, and atmosphere. Her dream remains timeless: a studio in Paris with a view of the Eiffel Tower.
The white-and-blue landscapes of Paros inspired her sense of clarity and contrast, while Athens and the Acropolis stirred her awareness of civilization, permanence, and myth.
New York affected her with a different intensity. The scale and force of its architecture — from the Brooklyn Bridge and Rockefeller Center to Central Park and its reflective towers — struck her like lightning. She absorbed the city’s holistic creative energy: the saturated colors of Chinatown, the raucous gospel singers of the Bronx, and wall murals displayed like raw declarations in open urban galleries.
In the American Southwest, the red stones of New Mexico, the breathtaking immensity of the Grand Canyon, and the crystalline air of Santa Fe — with its artist colonies and spiritual atmosphere — expanded her visual language still further.
Gabriella has exhibited internationally and in major regional venues. She has shown work in Florence at a fashion salon and held significant exhibitions at Intel in Munich and at Mercedes. At Bahnpark Augsburg, she presented her first major Steampunk series, and a local television interview featured her. She also held a ten-week exhibition at the Glaspalast in Augsburg and exhibited her Universe works for the 25th anniversary of the Hubble Space Telescope. She extended her artistic practice into stage design for Augsburg’s leading ballet company, and they awarded her a major commission.
Gabriella studied art for seven years with Hennes Ruißing, primary pupil of Professor Tröger of the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich.
Lava, water, ore, minerals, and the bones of ancient animals — forming, shaping, and molding alternative universes of harmony and hue.