Wagner Gabi | Contemporary Artist: Artworks & Biography

With the German-born Gabi Wagner, it's the spirit of the Bauhaus reborn in Marseille, her adopted city. Born in Saarland, on the border of France, she began her career in Germany by painting signs, followed by her studies in applied design and graphic design in Saarbrucken, with a training focused on the Bauhaus, the great art movement, forerunner of contemporary design. ""It was very strict and very hard but we gained lifelong learning."" She is proud to have known exceptional teachers. After graduating as a graphic designer, she studied two years at the School of Fine Arts in Marseille. On her return to Germany, she began a new career as a teacher in fine arts and French. In her school, she found a beautiful engraving workshop. She began an internship and has remained faithful ever since to this technique, which allows her great precision in her work. Her favourite technique remains etching, which has more flexibility than lithography or screen-printing ""when drawing on the varnish it is almost like drawing on a sheet of paper, and I like that! If, for example, I have a deep depression, it actually goes through the plate and it makes holes!"" On a daily basis, as far as materials are concerned, she favours zinc, which is cheaper than copper ""and because we can see what we have done better."" She begins with squares, circles, half - circles and rectangles. Then she introduces variations of these forms. She uses etching like painting and enjoys producing unique prints. She appreciates the unexpected results that her creations show her: ""Sometimes the acid does not act right, it's hard to degrease the plate and the varnish breaks and crackles... but that is good!"" Her work, inspired by her compatriot Anselm Kiefer (born in 1945) is influenced by colour, is bright and in harmony with features, shapes and textures. ""A living engraving,"" a biological inspiration, born of the union of acid and zinc.\n