Regina: An exhibition by Gabriel Moses
Gabriel Moses opened the doors’s to his latest exhibition ‘Regina’ at 180 studios on April 5, 2023. I took a visit to see his work last year during this time and here’s why you should have too!
By Ella Campbell
From the moment you arrive at the exhibition you are transported into Gabriel Moses’s own realm of creative perspective.
Original photograph’s shot by Gabriel running along the walls are the first thing you notice. Gabriel plays around with contrast in unconventional ways all throughout the exhibition and incorporates multiple medium’s to elaborate the nuance of the space. He uses the balance of a deep colour palette and white/ brighter coloured clothing to highlight the deep tones in his model’s skin complexions and create contrast. The colour theory he uses in the images is what makes them so captivating, the technique is high level and his shots are satisfying to the eye.
Moses also uses black and white imagery to capture contrast, showing how tones you can further convey a message with the absence of colour. These two images by Moses both utilise tone in different ways to define what the image projects to the observer rather than just what is in the frame of the image.
There was a lot of cowboy and ballet imagery amongst the exhibition, I thought this was really beautiful on a visual level but also a poetic choice of archetypes to contrast. You could literally feel the change in atmosphere depending what section of the room you were viewing, all through the way Gabriel used tone to distinguish the two. The exhibition included two short-films directed by Gabriel, one in black and white and the other in colour following the same tones and colour-grading as his print images. A preview of the films can be viewed here. The space also included a poem written on the wall addressed ‘Mumsy’ and a 3-D model of a male posing face on with is hands inter-linked.
This was one of those exhibitions that have you walking out with a giddy smile on your face and a creatively stimulated brain, the authenticity in the work and the ambience in the execution made this experience one to remember.
Although ‘Regina’ closed its door in April of last year, I would highly recommend keeping an eye out for when Mr. Moses’ next decides to showcase his art with the world!