My body, still too heavy with
sleep to move (...)
“I awoke like this, and my mind struggled in an unsuccessful attempt to discover where I was, everything would be moving round me through the darkness: things, places, years. My body, still too heavy with sleep to move, would make an effort to construe the form which its tiredness took as an orientation of its various members, so as to induce from that where the wall lay and the furniture stood, to piece together and to give a name to the house in which it must be living.(...)”
Marcel Proust, Du côté de chez Swann
"My body, still too heavy with sleep to move" shows a lifeless crowd submerges in a coma. Unable to act, the characters freeze inside shapeless visions, where truth and hallucination blur.
Gabriela practices traditional oil painting, using it to illustrate the fears of contemporary Western culture. The restrained style of her works and the simplicity of the means used correspond to the poverty and deficiency accompanying us. The monumental format of the paintings enhances the impression of claustrophobia and overwhelm. The author draws inspiration from Spanish painting of the 17th and 18th centuries, simultaneously subjecting them to a critical interpretation. She refers to documentary and realism trends, further emphasizing the social and political aspects of her works. She pays great attention to details, which determine the final shape of the image. Elements of everyday life taken out of context describe the helplessness and stupefaction of the contemporary individual, forced to move blindly in a makeshift, unstable system.
My body, still too heavy with sleep to move I, oil on canvas, 60 x 80 cm, London, 2019 
My body, still too heavy with sleep to move II, oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm, London, 2019
A triptych view, London, 2020
An exhibition view, Sopot, Poland 2020