Gabriela Suarez del Real, a painter and sculptor, is building a legend in art in Zacatecas, Mexico, and around the world. She considers art as a fundamental concept for the full development of human life. Her techniques and materials came from years of preparation: crushed glasses, travel souvenirs, needle and thread applied in techniques such as oil, encaustic, acrylic, resins and pigments. Her artistic work is designed to saturate the eyes and allow the viewers to escape from reality, which is highlighted through her work with nuances of the heart, signs, and signals, the Legend of Juana Gallo cartoons of a myth, the Zen Sample collection of Huiricuta. Her most recent work exhibition is Ode to art and its creators, a tribute to the artistic community at the Ex Templo de San Agustín in Zacatecas, which brings together 50 international artists through the Irma Valerio Art Gallery in commemoration of its 30th anniversary.

When did you first become interested in art and what drew you to it?
The feeling of doing something creative has been within me my whole life. Nevertheless, I can’t deny my mother’s influence over me when she took me into the art’s world by the time she opened her own, and the first art gallery in my hometown, 30 years ago. My studying trip to Italy and specialty on interior design after graduating in Architecture clarified my mind and heart about my path in the art world. Feeling a spectator’s emotions while observing one of my creations is something that hooked me to painting and still keep me captivated by it.

What inspires you as an artist?
Inspiration comes from the Latin: In-Spiratio, which means in spirit or deeply breathing. Inspiration is to me the insinuation in someone’s heart, it´s something that comes directly to my heart and makes me move, like taking a breath. For example, the sunset, a flower, a poem, one love, the sea, I mean, my inspiration is no other than the result or reflect of my regular day, it’s a reflection of life, about human beings, your daily walk that is portraited in shapes, colors, textures, and lines on canvas.

Besides painting, you also work with ceramic and sculpture. What makes you interested in these two forms of art?
Since the beginning as an artist, I started working with ceramics. The sensation of knead of mud, shaping it, giving form and meaning, it’s like our origin, our connection to the world, it is how we are capable of transforming our life just from being dust.

How have you and your work grown since the start of your career?
Tenacity, discipline, delivery, and daily work obviously. I think every person mostly as an artist grows every day in all aspects. My work today, makes me feel in peace, it has been a slow process, I have always liked to reuse. Today, there are many paintings that have matured from others, which didn´t work out, and I have adapted them from past to become a new ones where there has been space for the beauty of my mistakes, my clumsiness, and, of course, my freedom.

Have there been any moments or milestones in your career that have felt particularly meaningful to you?
One art exhibition that gave me satisfaction was my first large format exhibition named “Cosecha de Otoño” or “Fall Harvest,” where I moved from paintings 60x80 cm to almost 2m pieces. Another of my most important milestones was being able to take my work to various places and galleries in Europe in 2020 and 2021. Places like Galerie Arts in Paris, Galería il Laboratorio in Rome, Scuola Grande of San Theodore in Venice, Feria de Arte Contemporáneo in Monzon, Huesca, Spain, Galería ImaginArte, in Barcelona. A funny experience was that we couldn’t show my work on Russia, but, instead, we had it screened on a Wall at the House of Nationalities in Moscow.

What advice would you give to young women hoping to pursue careers in art? Is there anything you have learned in your career or wished you had known earlier?
Passion, talent, and effort are the main ingredients. Success is the result of mixing talent and formation. You must constancy love what you do; one’s mastering will be achieved when you invest hours practicing. Painting is research, filling our minds with images, having a large library with moments of life, experiences, journeys and mainly, self-confidence.

Who are some of your favorite artists?
I love the multifaceted Pablo Picasso, a multidisciplinary artist whose work is a reference to many artists nowadays. English landscaper William Turner whose paintings have the touch of creative subjectivity, a rich inner world, his tormented nature, his passion, his work is full of gesture, evanescence and a dramatic plastic expression, everything is a pictorial atmosphere to me. And, finally, not less important, Manuel Felguerez, born in my hometown, and someone whom I met, definitively a reference to me.

Do you have any other projects coming up or in the works?
Currently, I am developing an author´s jewelry project with a double purpose. Sculptured pieces converted in jewelry, also working two exhibitions, an individual one that will be shown in my hometown in 2023, and the second one for a museum in 2024.

Social Media.
www.gabysuarezdelreal.com
Instagram: @gabysuarezdelreal
Facebook: gabysuarezdelreal

Article by Chloe Liu, Contributor, PhotoBook Magazine
Tearsheets by Alexa Dyer, Graphic Design Coordinator, PhotoBook Magazine
PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF GABRIELA SUÁREZ DEL REAL
Coordination: JESÚS RÍOS COZZETTO