Interview with Gabriella Gerbasi (GG) by Phil Anderson (PA)
Gabriella Grebasi at her show at Gallery 1313. Photo: Phil Anderson
PA: Did you as a child growing up in Cape Breton have a passion for the arts?
GG: Since I was young, I was always drawing, and I knew I wanted to be an artist. I always had a sketchbook with me and loved to create my own characters and world. It was around senior year of high school that I started to oil paint and instantly fell in love with the medium.
PA: When deciding to go to art school why did you pick OCADU in Toronto and not NSCADU in Halifax?
GG: I originally attended NSCAD for my first year of university. I was only 17 when I graduated and thought it would be best if I stayed closer to home for my first year. I later transferred to OCAD for my second year. I always knew I was going to go to Toronto, as I wanted to live in a city, and that’s where my parents originally lived before moving to Cape Breton.
PA: What are your current paintings about in terms of subject matter?
GG: The body of work I’ve recently been focusing on primarily surrounds topics related to the female body. I pull a lot from playboy magazines as well as videogames. I like to re-imagine the portrayal of female figures within these mediums and explore different ways of viewing them, creating images that resist easy digestion. Through the overlay of multiple imagery, I want to allow sustained and shifting encounters with the subject that can sometimes be hard to read, while subverting the original material.
Nuderaider, Oil on wood, 2025, 16” x 12”
PA: What are you saying about youth culture in your work?
GG: The subject in my work that relates the most to youth culture would probably be the videogames. It’s something that is not typically digested through oil painting and is a point of relation for a lot of people my age who grew up with digital imagery.
PA: In your recent exhibition at Gallery1313 you showed two bodies of work. What is the difference between them?
GG: My original body of work sourced from Playboy and video games, primarily focused on how female characters in video games were represented. Within this research, Playboy served as supporting material to establish a connection between the sexualized representation of women in video games and the porn industry.
Holding on, 2026, oil on wood, 6” x 12”
Moving forward I focused more on how the magazines themselves depicted the female form through consumerist tropes. The newer work feels like an extension of my earlier research, it just shifts away from video game culture. It continues to investigate how images of women are constructed in relation to male desire, consumption, and idealized femininity. Constant throughout these works is the obstructed overlays that disrupt the view of pleasure, instead interrogating how these images are constructed.
Mona, 2026, oil on wood, 20″ x 24″
PA: Is there an influence in the art world that has inspired your art practice?
GG: The work I did for this show, Nue, was inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s Nu Descendant un Escalier No.2. A friend showed me that work during my thesis year and I find that this and similar cubist works have a lot of the same overlaying qualities that I look to achieve. In contemporary practice I would say that Louise Giovanelli is one of my favourite painters. Her use of colour and luminosity within paintings is something I admire.
Nue, 2026, oil on wood, 30” x 40”
PA: Are there any of your contemporaries that you like where their work is going?
GG: Most of my thesis class and peers have extremely strong work. I look up to a lot of them; their work is constantly evolving. I feel fortunate to be able to watch that and grow alongside them.
PA: How would you say your art practice has evolved from your early days in art school?
GG: My work has changed a lot since I started school. I used to do a lot of still life, portraits, and then more surrealist imaginative works that involved the human form.
Milk, 2026, oil on wood, 16” x 16”
PA: Do you have any other exhibitions lined up? Are there any residencies you would like to apply for?
GG: I’ve been working on some new work with a friend of mine that I’m excited about. Besides that, I’ve just been applying to everything that interests me.
PA: What are your plans? Are you planning more studies?
GG: I would like to eventually do a masters I think. Now I’m enjoying not being in school and just exploring what Toronto has to offer.
*Images are courtesy of the artist