Gabriela Bornstein (then Gasperini) was 25 when she arrived in New York from Rio de Janeiro in 1998 with a degree in graphic design and dreams of working in publishing. She became a book cover designer at HarperCollins and later an advertising art director, but after she had children her path veered toward fine art.
“I was doing freelance work and so much art with my kids,” she said. “At some point I thought, why am I not doing more of this for myself?”
In those years in Brooklyn, the subway was her studio. She filled notebooks with sketches of strangers, then learned silkscreen printing and began transferring the drawings onto paper, tote bags, and T-shirts she sold at street markets. The series, which she called “New York City Underground,” became her first major body of work.
“I even had a motto: I see you, I feel you, I don’t know you, I draw you, I love you,” said Bornstein, whose work is displayed this month at the Rye Arts Center’s Gallery B. “When you draw someone completely unknown, you start to humanize them. You imagine who they are, and you love them a little just because you’ve really seen them.”
Now a Mamaroneck resident, Bornstein’s arrival in Westchester changed her artistic life and compelled her to turn inward. “Living in the suburbs is much more reclusive,” she said. “You don’t see people in the same way. That’s when I began ‘Tropical Surrealism.’ I started to look at myself, my heritage, my family’s stories.”
She had always been aware of Brazil’s layered history. “Brazil is probably the most mixed country in the world,” she said of her native country. “Indigenous people were there first, then the Portuguese colonized and brought enslaved Africans. Later, Italians, Japanese, Germans. Families that were mixed often looked white, and their Afro or Indigenous roots were hidden. It’s hard to trace because names were changed, records are incomplete.”
A DNA test revealed her Afro-Indigenous ancestry, and she began searching for ways to reclaim it. “I couldn’t piece together a perfect family tree, so ‘Tropical Surrealism’ became my way of telling the story creatively. I researched Amazonian plants and animals, and I imagined my ancestors in that world. In some works, I ask: what if my grandmother had looked Indigenous? In the collages you see the photo as it was, but in the painting, I give her Indigenous features, traditional body paint and clothing.”
This exploration led to another series, “Generations,” which focuses on the women in her family. She created a Facebook page called “Stories of the Gasperini Family” and urged distant relatives to dig through drawers and share photographs. “I begged people — ‘please, send me what you find.’ Because the real value isn’t the jewelry or the money, it’s the memories. Photos are priceless.” The resulting collages, layered with silkscreen and mixed media, celebrate the matrilineal line. “I don’t portray any men,” she said. “It’s about the strength of the women who came before me.”
The Rye Arts Center exhibition, “Tropical Surrealism and Other Stories,” brings together these three series — “Tropical Surrealism,” “Generations” and “New York City Underground.” The works range from large-scale acrylic paintings to silkscreens, collages, and mixed media. Despite the variety of materials, Bornstein ties them together with one thread. “Even though the mediums are different — painting, collage, silkscreen — the common theme is the human being. The people on the subway, the women in my family, or imagined ancestors in the Amazon — they’re all connected.”
For Jill Parry, creator of the Gallery B space, Bornstein’s exhibition exemplifies what she hopes Gallery B can achieve. “It has to be more than pretty pictures these days,” she said. “Bornstein’s exploration of heritage, ancestry, and identity struck her as a particularly strong and timely narrative. Her imagery, especially in ‘Tropical Surrealism,’ tells a powerful story,” Parry said.
What Bornstein hopes visitors will take away is just as profound. “I want people to think about where they came from,” she said. “It may seem like we’re all very different, but we share a lot more than we realize. In the end, it’s about connection and compassion.”
“Tropical Surrealism and Other Stories” opens at the Rye Arts Center on Oct. 16 with a reception from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Bornstein will return on Nov. 6 for an artist talk from 6 to 7 p.m., when she plans to share images of her work’s evolution and the stories behind them.
