Artist Statement

Gabrielle Burnett is a multi-media artist from Arlington, Texas. Her artwork is informed by lived experience from all the places she has lived in like Chicago, Illinois, Oxford, Mississippi and Atlanta, Georgia. She primary focuses on drawing black bodies specifically Black women’s bodies, collecting inspiration from her peers at Spelman College. She creates these characters to combat stereotypes about the black community hoping to inspire the next generation of black creators that they are not limited but limitless. Gabrielle’s work is mostly portraiture that branches out into comics and cartoons. She works with gouache, watercolor, alcohol markers, and digital art programs like FireAlpaca and TinkerCAD. She is inspired by artists like Amy Sherald and James Marshall with bright color pallets contrasting black skin. Her artist process is informed by rap and hip-hop music by artist like Megan Thee Stallion, GloRilla, Rico Nasty and Doechii. Hints to the music she listens to can be found in created artworks. She incorporates ideas and processes learned from her art and art history classes. She informs her work through questions posed about blackness through conversations and debates held on social media. She works through the lens of Afro-Futurism in which she imagines new worlds for African Americans to live in.