Sophie Gabrielle

Statement

Sophie Gabrielle is a Naarm (Melbourne, Australia) based contemporary photographer and curator. Interested in the intersection between photography, memory and myth-making, Sophie uses archive, organic matter and portraiture to investigate the world of the unseen and create space in which the past and present co-exist. With research as a core part of their practice, Sophie’s work uses the connotation of photography to create an open dialogue on themes that have a personal connection to the artist and a broader perspective on the history of the subject.

Sophie Gabrielle lives and works on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation, and pays their deepest respects to Elders past and present and acknowledges that sovereignty was never ceded.

GlogauAIR Project

During the three months at GlogauAIR, Sophie intends to explore the connection of mycelium and human connection in a social and historical context. Interested in the organisms power of transformative inspiration and deep-time sense of belonging, this new work intends to capture the feminine knowledge of the fungi. In Western society structures, historically women have been custodians of ecological knowledge through foraging practices. However, many voices were silenced from formal participation in Science and were oen dangerously cast aside as ‘witchcra’. This project aims to reclaim this space using the fruiting bodies of the mycelium cultivated at GlogauAIR through archive images of male mycologists.

Photography

CV Summary

Sophie Gabrielle is a Naarm-based contemporary photographer and curator. Their work uses archive and the human body to investigate the connection between photography, history, memory and psychology. Their work has been exhibited in Australia, Malaysia, The Netherlands, France, Germany, South Korea, the USA and the UK. Notable commissions and collaborations of Sophie’s work are The New Yorker -Fiction Issue, July 2021, cover art for The Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra’s Die Seejungfrau (The Little Mermaid, 2020) and Uk musician Seabuckthron’s album Through a vulnerable occur was produced as a companion piece to the Ikki Selects photobook by the same name containing a curated selection of Sophie’s work. They are a Foam Talent recipient (2018) and a finalist for the Lensculture Emerging Talent Awards (2016).

They are also a board member of Good Moon Rising, a non-profit creative collective that creates safe spaces for gender-diverse artists and musicians to be celebrated in Melbourne. They have obtained a Masters in Arts Management from RMIT focussing on curation and community engagement within galleries and a Bachelor of Photography majoring in Fine Art.

Awards

• 2018: Lensculture Fine Art Semi-Finalist
• 2018: Foam Fotografia Emerging Talent Award
• 2017: Center Of Contemporary Photography – Most Powerful Image – Worry For The Fruit The Birds Won’t Eat
• 2017: Best Composition – Emerging Artists – Australian Catholic University
• 2016: Lensculture Emerging Talent finalist
• 2016: Center Of Contemporary Photography – Best Fashion Image
• 2015: Greatest Achievement in Fine Art Major – Photography Studies College

Exhibitions

• 2022: máthair mhór, Solo exhibitio, Edge Galleries, Maldon, Australia
• 2021: Worry for the fruit the birds won’t eat solo exhibition, Scope Gallery, Hannover Germany.
• 2020: The Things I Tell You Will Not Be Wrong Group exhibition, Scope Gallery, Hannover Germany.
• 2020: Beyond the cosmos emerging artist feature Photo Basel, Switzerland represented by Galerie &co119
• 2019: Solo of selected works, Galerie &co119

Gallery