Gila Rayberg
Pensacola, Florida
Gila Rayberg, a former musician and educator, creates unique mosaic portraits, exhibits across the U.S., leads workshops, and has artwork collected globally.
MessageGila Rayberg came to visual art after a career as a freelance musician and educator. After recieving an M.A. in music from Arizona State University, she immersed herself in San Francisco’s experimental music scene before venturing overseas to teach and perform in East Malaysia. Extensive travel across Southeast Asia deepened her engagement with indigenous art, textiles, and material culture.
On her return to the USA, Rayberg settled in New Orleans, busking jazz standards before joining the horn section of Deacon John & the Ivories. After Hurricane Katrina, she shifted her focus to mosaic full-time, and moved to Florida.
Gila’s portrait practice gained momentum through participation in Julia Kay’s Portrait Party, evolving into an ongoing series of over 70 mosaic portraits alongside hundreds of works on paper. She has been invited to international symposia, including the Contemporary Mosaic Art Symposium in Sardinia and a mosaic symposium in Patagonia, Argentina.
Rayberg’s studio practice expanded during the Covid period, driven by material experimentation and expanded directions in her work. Gila teaches workshops nationally and internationally, and her award-winning portraits have been widely exhibited and published. Recent highlights include a solo exhibition at Artel Gallery (Pensacola) and a six-month exhibition at the Pensacola Museum of Art.
Statement
Over the past two decades I’ve been increasingly captivated by portraiture. While fanciful in color and pattern, I try to bring forth the character and emotion of each individual. The artworks are predominantly materials driven, combining a wide variety of dishes and other would-be discarded ‘memory-ware’, along side more traditional mosaic materials. The curves, rims, handles and other characteristically rounded crockery often become defining elements within my portraits. A teacup handle may become an ear or a strand of hair; the rim of a cup, an eyelid. I love those ‘aha’ moments when the perfect shard reveals itself to me. I ponder the memory of where an object originated, who gave it to me, and other significance it may hold. Endless combinations of disparate elements come together to tell new stories & keep my mind active, while the cutting and placing of each piece keeps me physically grounded. There’s nothing I’d rather be doing, all else falls to the wayside.
Cut and arranged with passion and spontaneity,
I strive to create texture & movement;
something you want to reach out and touch!