Gabby Severson
Pronouns: she/her
Gabby grew up in Oregon and is currently enrolled at Parsons School of Design in New York to get her BFA in Fine Arts.
Through the use of traditional Indigenous practices, materials, and techniques passed down through her family and tribe, Gabby’s work explores the fractures, seams, and connections that exist within her identity as a Native American, white woman. Taking inspiration from her home in Oregon, and weaving the themes of familial ties, heritage, and displacement together into her work, she seeks to establish her own traditions. She mixes mediums—ceramics, manufactured craft materials, textiles, and natural materials native to her tribe—with cultures and crafts, literally weaving them together to illuminate the importance of reclaiming, repairing, and reframing the ways in which Native American practices and arts can live in a modern world. In her work, she draws from feelings of displacement and brokenness after rejecting parts of her identity. Gabby’s work displays the struggle of questioning and blending those fractured bonds and exploring what it means to reclaim parts of oneself.