Gabriella Novak (born 1982 in Silesia, Poland) lives and works in Stockholm.
Gabriella Novak currently works with painting, drawing which incorporates performance alongside other experimental working methods. For Novak, the starting point is the body experience, alongside lines, colors, senses and movements. During the creation itself, the artist’s body can be replaced in part by machines that she often builds herself, or, as she calls them, with “artificial bodies.” Science and technology are Novak’s great fascinations, and by using those possibilities she explores the material and intangible. The permanent and impermanent.
A central theme in Novak’s previous work is violence as a social construction and exploitation of the female body, she has worked with video, photo, performance, readymades whereby she used her own body and various objects linked to or signifying violence, in order to illuminate its constructions. This previous work with the body developed into her current practice, the body and embodiment being central.
Gabriella Novak graduated from the Umeå Academy of the Arts in 2016, and has a background in art history, film science, the philosophy of photography and the psychology of religion.
Novak has participated in group exhibitions and art projects around Sweden, and abroad.
EDUCATION
2013-16 Bachelor in Fine Arts, Academy of Fine Arts, Umeå (Sweden)
2011-12 Art History, Film studies, Gävle University (Sweden)
2010-11 Photography, Valand Academy, HFF, Gothenburg. (Sweden)
2011-12 Philosophy of photography I, II, Karlstad University (Sweden)
2013-16 Kandidatexamen i fri konst, Konsthögskolan i Umeå, (Sverige)
2011-13 Konsthistoria, Filmhistoria, Universitet i Gävle, (Sverige)
2010-11 Fotografi, Högskolan för fotografi, Konsthögskolan Valand, Göteborg, (Sverige)
2011-12 Fotografins filosofi I, II, Karlstads Universitetet, (Sverige)
SHOWS / PROJECTS (SELECTED)
2020 Group Show and performance, Glasgalleriet, Ludvika, (Sweden)
2019 Performance Earth ritual with NKK, The Art Market, Mossutställningar, Stockholm
2018 Performance with Personal Space, workshop by Shiva Anoushirvani, Pals Performance Art, Links, Fylkingen, Stockholm
2018 Performance Kungörelse with NKK, Moderna museet, Stockholm
2017 Performance with Personal Space, 7th Contexts International Festival of Ephemeral Art, Sokolowsko, (Poland)
2017 Group Show, Workshop, Part of exhibition by Maja Bekan, Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, (Poland)
2015-19 Running a performance group Personal Space with Mariusz Andrzejczyk
ASSISTANT: Cecilia Edefalk
GRANTS: IAPSIS, The Swedish Arts Grants Committee, Konstnärsnämnden (Sweden)
MEMBER: The Swedish Artists National Organisation, Konstnärernas Riksorganisation (KRO), New Artist Club, Nya Konstnärsklubben (NKK)