Gabriela Trzebinski
Artist Statement
Born in Nairobi, Kenya, to a Polish father and an English mother, educated in London, and now living in Houston, Gabriela Trzebinski is a global nomad. Since leaving art school, she has mined her sensibility as a “third culture” child, whose notion of true belonging is forever called into question by her multinational and multicultural existence. Trzebinski operates in the gap between estrangement and familiarity to engage issues of race, gender, ethnicity, and religion. For many years now, Trzebinski’s negotiation of cultural identity has been focused on Africa as the place where her contradictory sense of (non) adherence is thrown into sharpest relief. Her race and heritage as a fair-skinned woman of European origin superficially sets her apart from the majority of the population, yet the country of her childhood is inescapably ingrained in her heart and soul. While black Africans may refuse to accept the fact that she shares their sense of Kenyan identity, her paintings affirm her inner “Africanness” through an all-black cast of characters and scenarios grounded in her own experience of the country. Showing a claustrophobic bird’s-eye view of a figure confined to a cell and strapped onto a bed, General Hannibal (2005) illustrates Trzebinski’s personal brush with “near insanity” while obsessively investigating her brother’s unsolved 2001 murder in Kenya over a five-year period. Trying to get to the bottom of what was officially labeled a carjacking, Trzebinski dove into the Nairobi underworld in a desperate search for clues that would lead to her brother’s killers, but had to abandon her quest in order to save her own life. Although haunted by this violent personal history, Trzebinski insists on the co-existence of cruelty and beauty in the world as well as in her work. My Daddy is a Tranny (2006) is an ironic take on Kenyans’ conflicted attitude toward homosexuality. Although technically illegal, it is commonly known that the tourist industry in certain towns thrives on man-on-man sex, and males dress as women for indigenous ceremonial purposes. While the painting shows no apparent signs of imprisonment, the image of the half-naked, cross-dressing man carries within its tightly cropped frame a sense of confinement that negates any sexual freedom this state of undress and masquerade would normally allude to. In painting scenes of murder, imprisonment, illicit sex, or political injustice, Trzebinski seeks to expose the harsh realities of life on the African continent, but her faux-naďve style assures that her work does so with great tenderness and humor. The same is true of work that deals with issues closer to Trzebinski’s new American home, where she has directed her attention to the history and perspective of other marginalized peoples. Whether addressing the potentially deadly fate of border runners in El Papa Murio por Nosotros en la Frontera (2006) or the persistence of a clan mentality in efforts to undo the civil rights movement in Bigfoot (2007), she tackles new issues with the same boldness and conviction that defines her work about Africa. Trzebinski’s love and care for anything African takes the form of a passionate advocacy that crosses all conventional boundaries set by race and gender.
Claudia Schmuckli, May 2008, Blaffer Museum, Houston, Texas.
Click here to view artist's website – www.gabrielatrzebinski.com