About the Artist:
Gabryel Harrison was born in New Zealand. The artist now lives and works in Vancouver, Canada. She completed a BA with a concentration in fine art at the University of Ottawa in 1980, later fulfilling post-graduate requirements to become an art therapist in 1992. Working as an art therapist until 1996, and thereafter in the creative arts field, Harrison has been painting full time since 1999.
Early years spent in the rigorous pursuit and attainment of world-class athletic achievement gave Harrison the necessary discipline to enter long hours of solitude in the studio. These solitary hours facilitate growth, discovery and continual evolution as she seeks to deepen her practice of painting.
Harrison works predominately in the medium of oil painting, but her body of work includes printmaking, texts, video and sculptural objects. Gabryel is a painter inspired by the natural world and in particular its botanical forms. In her hands, the temporality of our existence is revealed in the gestural abstractions of florals, foliage and landforms. Her large scale oils on canvas speak in washes, layers and heavily impastoed passages of our own brief transit through this mysterious universe. As a visual artist who also writes poetry, this art form and Harrison’s favourite poets are also a major source of inspiration for her work.
