Abstract painting at Affordable Art Fair NYC: Gabriela Kramer on memory, spontaneity, movement, and letting her paintings breathe over time.
Walking through Affordable Art Fair NYC, visitors encountered many artists with carefully planned narratives and polished explanations. Then there was Gabriela Kramer.
Presented by Harsh Collective at Booth F3, Kramer spoke about painting with a refreshing honesty. Rather than describing a rigid system or a formula for creativity, she described a practice rooted in intuition, memory, emotion, and the willingness to let a painting evolve at its own pace.
Her colorful abstract works immediately attract attention. Vibrant layers, energetic gestures, unexpected marks, and rich textures create paintings that feel alive. Looking closely, viewers discover that beneath the playful surfaces lies something deeply personal.
One of the works on display explored themes of adolescence and the transition into womanhood. Through vivid color combinations and dynamic movement, Kramer transformed personal experiences into visual language. The result is work that feels joyful while still carrying emotional depth.
For Kramer, ideas rarely arrive in a neat or orderly fashion.
She keeps extensive notes, collecting thoughts, memories, emotions, and fragments of experiences that later become the foundation for paintings. Inspiration often arrives through travel, observation, and unexpected encounters.
A trip to Mexico City, for example, sparked one of her featured works, The Father, The Son and the Ghost. Inspired by the visual language of Catholic churches, religious symbolism, and the emotional atmosphere she encountered there, Kramer translated those impressions into a layered abstract composition.
Her process is equally fluid.
Unlike artists who adhere to strict studio schedules, Kramer paints whenever inspiration strikes. Sometimes that means early morning. Other times it means two o’clock in the morning.
Creativity, for her, refuses to follow office hours.
A typical studio session begins with coffee and the radio. Rather than curating playlists, she prefers the unpredictability of live broadcasts. The unexpected song, voice, or conversation becomes part of the creative environment. After some movement and a few moments to settle into the space, she begins painting.
What emerges on canvas is rarely limited to a single medium.
Although painting remains central to her practice, each work often contains layers of oil paint, acrylic, oil pastel, oil stick, graphite, spray paint, ink, and other materials. Some paintings contain as many as nine different mediums, creating surfaces rich with history and experimentation.
Listening to Kramer describe her process reveals an artist comfortable with uncertainty.
Some works are completed within days. Others remain in progress for months.
Rather than forcing completion, she allows each painting to dictate its own timeline.
This philosophy extends beyond technique and into her broader understanding of art itself.
Many artists feel pressure to finish, produce, and move on. Kramer embraces the opposite approach. She believes stepping away from a painting is often essential. Distance creates perspective. Returning with fresh eyes allows her to see what the work still needs or what it may already be saying.
She described painting as a form of meditation, a practice that teaches patience and acceptance. The process becomes less about reaching a destination and more about staying present throughout the journey.
That mindset may explain why her work feels simultaneously energetic and calming.
The paintings pulse with movement, yet they invite viewers to slow down and linger.
Following an intense period that included Spring/Break Art Show and several consecutive exhibitions throughout the summer, Kramer is taking a brief pause from exhibiting. Rather than rushing toward the next deadline, she plans to focus on making new work and exploring fresh directions.
One medium already calling her attention is ceramics.
Her next chapter may involve translating the abstract language of her paintings into three-dimensional sculptural forms. She envisions ceramic figures covered with glazes and painted surfaces that carry the same energy and spontaneity found in her canvases.
It is a natural evolution for an artist whose work continually resists staying in one place.
What makes Gabriela Kramer’s practice compelling is not simply her use of color or her technical experimentation. It is her willingness to trust the process, to embrace uncertainty, and to allow ideas to unfold over time.
In a culture obsessed with speed and productivity, her work offers something increasingly rare: permission to pause.
Permission to step back.
Permission to let things breathe.
And perhaps that is exactly why her paintings resonate so deeply. They remind us that growth, creativity, and transformation rarely happen all at once. Sometimes the most important part of the journey is simply giving ourselves enough space to return and see things differently.
About Tarik Talk Podcast
Tarik Talk Podcast takes listeners inside museums, galleries, artist studios, art fairs, and creative spaces around the world through conversations with artists, curators, collectors, cultural leaders, and creative professionals.
Hosted by Tarik Mendes, the podcast has featured more than 200 episodes across 50 seasons, filmed in over 10 countries and heard by audiences worldwide.