Gab Peabody

Mixed Nuts

Gab Peabody explores the joyful edge of comics and illustration, creating work that invites a smile while quietly reflecting on the everyday. A graduate of Butler University and currently a graduate student at the Herron School of Art, Peabody brings a fresh, bright vocabulary of character and color to her playful yet thoughtful pieces. She invites viewers into a world of charm, heart, and imagination.

In her work you’ll find a light-hearted spirit and accessible storytelling — whether her characters are robots, animals, or anthropomorphic icons — yet there’s also a savvy edge. Her process blends the narrative clarity of comics with the whimsy of children’s book illustration, while maintaining a preset goal: to connect, to uplift, and to make people smile.

One sees echoes of the clean lines and expressive simplicity of artists like Mary Blair and Chris Ware (especially in the precision of design and the joy in color), while the narrative-driven structure nods to underground and indie cartoonists such as Julie Doucet and Daniel Clowes — but re-imagined through Peabody’s own contemporary lens.

By combining humor, personality, and visual accessibility, Peabody positions her illustrations as both immediate and layered. They’re at once playful and grounded, charming yet rooted in real care for viewer connection. In her current show, she invites you to linger a beat: to snicker, to revisit, to reflect — and ultimately leave the room a little brighter than you entered.

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Heroines and Hellraisers

All the works included in this exhibition look very different depending upon the lighting and the viewing angle. This is intentional. The sculptural pieces are abstracted female forms, sometimes with a visible inner core. They are crafted from translucent resins that appear soft yet are strong and versatile. The works use a vocabulary of feminine objects to explore the experiences of the four women examined: Charlotte DuPuy, Mary Todd Lincoln, Madame Mentelle and Belle Brezing.

 As I read and reflected on the history of these women, I was constantly struck by how differently each of them has been perceived over time. I was also surprised by the paucity of information about them—birth, marriage, giving birth and death comprise the historical arc of most female narratives. Little is known about the movement of their thoughts or their hearts. I wanted to know these women better. Further, I was shocked by how their experiences with public scrutiny are still being played out in the lives of prominent women today.

As I read and created, I also reflected on the role of art vis a vis history. Imagination is the field house of art whereas recorded facts the province of history. Art-making that records or illustrate facts interests me very little. I don’t see the point in the age of Google. So, how to approach these women? I began with the historical record, books when available, then whatever visual information was found.

For Charlotte DuPuy there are no known photos, so I looked at photographs of other women enslaved during the same period. Madame Mentelle had only one drawing, made during her dotage showing no trace of the keen intellect characterizing this oddball of a woman. There are a few images of Belle Brezing spanning most of her life, from childhood through middle age, but even more images of her possessions. This led me to look at the material culture of each woman, seeking clues to their inner workings.

 For each woman, I tried to isolate a defining characteristic and consider modern exemplars of the same genre. Belle Brezing’s ability to transform the crass reality of prostitution into a class establishment frequently by rich and influential patrons was reproduced by Heidi Fleiss, with less success. Charlotte DuPuy’s bravery and resistance in the face of great danger could be seen as a precursor to the courageous actions of Rosa Parks and ML King. Mary Todd Lincoln’s political acumen coupled with her uncanny ability to engender public scorn was an act reproduced by Hilary Clinton. Whereas Madame Mentelle’s oddball style set the stage for Simone de Beauvoir and Germaine de Stael’s feminist revolution.

In short, although more than a century has passed, women are still dealing with the same issues: public scrutiny and harsh criticisms based on appearances and implied moral shortcomings, lack of ownership over their own bodies and prejudice, plain and simple. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

www.christinekuhnfineart.com