Episode 5 - Gabrielle Vitollo (Gabo)

Gabrielle Vitollo, better known as Gabo, takes us on the adventures of being an up-and-coming artist. She talks about her everyday life and what it takes creating art that an artist can be proud of. At the present time Gabo is most famous for her tabletop sculptures. Art collectors love them because they are completely different from anything they have ever owned. 

The sculptures make a very daring statement every-time you see them. They also reflect the collector’s confidence to own something that is very different than everyone else. Gabo says the three-dimensional metal sculptures question the viewer's conventional definitions of space, architecture, and form to challenge the status quo.  Gabo also focuses on abstract painting, sculpture, printmaking, and collage to “create a multi-dimensional experience that resists categorization and breaks boundaries.”

She received her BFA in Painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2012) and her MFA in Studio Art from New York University Steinhardt (2017) where Gabo studied multi-disciplinary techniques that hybridized traditional and digital media. In 2018, Gabo relocated to Berlin, Germany on a Fulbright Research Grant for Painting & Printmaking to research Albrecht Dürer’s dynamic printmaking compositions for their paintings. In 2022, Gabo returned to Brooklyn, NY.

Gabo’s recent awards also include a DAAD Scholarship, a Martin Wong Scholarship, two YoungArts Microgrants, and two Elizabeth Greenshields Grants. Vitollo’s work has been exhibited at Fredericks & Freiser, Friedhof Museum Berlin, the Knockdown Center, 80WSE Gallery, Miami’s Margulies Collection, Kunstpunkt Berlin, and Iceland’s Listasafn Arnesinga Art Museum. Public works include a sculpture which was installed at Walt M. Shammel Community Garden in Brooklyn, NY and made possible through NYC Parks. Vitollo was an artist in residence at Yaddo, Baccarat Crystal Factory, Fountainhead, and the YoungARTS Olafur Eliasson Workshop filmed by HBO. 

Gabo is also an adjunct painting and drawing faculty member at Montclair State University and Pratt Institute.