Gabriella Presnal is a Finnish-American mixed-media artist. Their works surround themes inspired by life experiences, identity, global politics, culture, and human rights. Many pieces involve how people experience their minds and bodies and how society can be reflected within those personal experiences. She also loves creating portraits and reusing materials, like dried paint to create collages or texture in installations. She works mostly with paints but she has also worked in other mediums like sculptures, collage, video, mixed media, and installation pieces.

Gaby’s interest in art began in elementary school while living in Sweden after moving from the United States. After moving to Finland from Canada in 2017 she has been in multiple exhibitions so far. The first was a solo exhibition called Genuine Expression in June 2019 on Aleksanterinkatu in Helsinki, several group virtual exhibitions including one in Kulttuuri – Toimitus (2020), Harmony (2020) for the Skanssi Lux Festival in Turku, and the group exhibition ARS108 (2021) in Nokia. She is currently a second-year student studying Fine Arts at Tampere University of Applied Sciences.

The Harmony Hives (2021) are pieces that reimagine our world where everyone is welcome and we live in harmony with our environment & one another. The exhibition attempts to represent a world without oppression, conflict, and violence, voicing what the youth of today are demanding from our political institutions. The pieces’ most essential message is that even a child can see the large systemic issues at hand, hence the youthful style. This hope for our future may not be 100% possible, the artist surely doesn’t imagine society living in beehives, but perhaps with the idea & action of solidarity, we can create a version of it.