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Gabriela Vainsencher’s porcelain sculptures and wall reliefs combine archaeological and anatomical motifs that have appeared throughout her interdisciplinary practice of drawing, video, and photography. As an immigrant twice-over, she often experiments with materials and languages and uses images and objects as metaphors. In her recent work, Vainsencher draws inspiration from mythology, ancient Greek ceramic vessels and Roman frescoes, and archetypes of motherhood. Tropes such as the clock and the hourglass are conflated with the body’s biological time, and fertility symbols and reproductive organs coexist with less obviously maternal body parts such as hands and ears. The monumental multi-part installation “Mom” is both a literal snake-monster and a wielder of many manufactured tools that enable her maternal tasks. Vainsencher portrays motherhood as nuanced and multi-faceted, and both agelessly symbolic and specifically contemporary.

As a counterpart to Vainsencher’s ceramic practice, which draws from both historical vessels and the feminine body, her two photography series "Treasure of the Bible Lands" and "Back Dirt" are made by stacking cut-up pages from an archeology book with the holes piled atop each other—creating images that both replicate the chaos of an archeological dig while also creating new hybrid forms. Vainsencher prints the resulting photographs much larger than the original pages, revealing the materiality of the cuts and tears in the paper.

Vainsencher was born in Buenos Aires, raised in Tel Aviv, and currently lives and works in Montclair, NJ. She received her MFA from Hunter College in 2016. Past solo and two-person exhibitions include CRUSH Curatorial Gallery, New York, NY; A.I.R. Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; Hanina Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; Musée d’Art Moderne André Malraux, Le Havre, France; Parker’s Box Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; NurtureArt, NY; and La Chambre Blanche, Québec City, Canada. Her work has been included in group exhibitions such as The Jerusalem Biennale, Israel; Apexart, NY; Marisa Newman Projects, NY; Bergamo Modern and Contemporary Art, Italy; Kunstforening, Tromsø, Norway; the Bronx AIM Biennial, NY; Pierogi Gallery, Brooklyn, NY; The Freies Museum, Berlin; and The National Gallery of Saskatchewan, Canada. Vainsencher has been reviewed in the New York Times, the New Yorker, Brooklyn Rail, Whitehot Magazine, and Artforum, among others. Residencies include Yaddo, The Atlantic Center for the Arts, Byrdcliffe Artist Residency, Triangle Arts Association (France), and La Chambre Blanche (Canada). Vainsencher is the founder of the Morning Drawing Residency, and has written about art for Hyperallergic, Title Magazine and Tohu magazine.

Photography by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

Treasure of The Bible Lands #1, 2018 - ongoing

Archival pigment print on satin paper

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

Edition of 5 with 2 APs

GV031

Gabriela Vainsencher photograph

Gabriela Vainsencher

Treasure of The Bible Lands #2, 2018 - ongoing

Archival pigment print on satin paper

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

Edition of 5 with 2 APs

GV033

Photography by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

Treasure of The Bible Lands #7, 2018 - ongoing

Archival pigment print on satin paper

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

Edition 1 of 5 with 2 APs

GV032

Photography by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

Treasure of The Bible Lands #9, 2018 - ongoing

Archival pigment print on satin paper

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

Edition of 5 + 2 APs

GV034

Photography by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

Treasure of the Bible Lands #3, 2018 - ongoing

Archival pigment print on satin paper

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

Edition of 5 + 2 APs

GV036

Photography by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

Treasure of the Bible Lands #6, 2018 - ongoing

Archival pigment print on satin paper

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

Edition of 5 + 2 APs

GV035

Photography by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

A Bird Swallowed a Rooster, 2021

Archival pigment print on satin paper

27h x 17w in
68.58h x 43.18w cm

Edition 2 of 5 + 2APs

GV037

Photography by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

Containment Sold as Protection, 2021

Archival pigment print on satin paper

27h x 17w in
68.58h x 43.18w cm

Edition 5 of 5 + 2APs

GV038

Photo by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

Double Axe Double Meaning, 2021

Pigment print on archival satin paper

24h x 17w in
60.96h x 43.18w cm

Framed: 25h x 18w x 1.75d in
63.50h x 45.72w x 4.45d cm

Edition 1 of 5 + 2 AP

GV040

Photo by Gabriela Vainsencher

Gabriela Vainsencher

Absence Plus Fullness Makes a Whole, 2021

Pigment print on archival satin paper

24h x 18w in
60.96h x 45.72w cm

Framed: 25h x 18.75w x 1.75d in
63.50h x 47.63w x 4.45d cm

Edition 1 of 5 + 2 AP

GV039