We’re delighted to welcome Gabrielle Vendette to Six Foot Gallery. Gabrielle is a photographer and mixed-media artist from Montreal currently based out of Paris, France. Inspired by all iterations of queer life around her, including her own as a queer woman, Gabrielle seeks to reflect back this vision of the world through her art and photography, creating worlds where the unexpected can thrive. She is inspired by seeming contradictions and the multitude of ways that identity desires to be expressed. Gabrielle hopes she can challenge conventional ideas of gender, queerness, and self-expression through photography that is dynamic and invites you into parts unknown.

See Gabrielle’s work as part of our conceptual photography open call, STAGED, curated by gallery intern Noa Ferder. The participating artists each examine how a still image can hold the tension of a performed moment, and carry liveness through composition, gesture, and construction. We create a space where photography is a site of performance, where the still is activated. We invite visitors to experience photographs that sit somewhere between rehearsal and outcome: the making of the image exists within the captured still, allowing the still to continue to perform in the act of being seen.

Thanks for exhibiting with us Gabrielle! How did your artistic journey start?
I’ve always been very interested in photography, even at a young age. I like to say I’ve had a ‘will-they-won’t they’ relationship with photography; I got my first digital camera at 8 years old and immediately started organising photoshoot days with my friends, trying to convince them to help me execute my creative vision. In high school, I took a film photography class that was equipped with its own dark room. I have great memories from that class, but I let my interest wane as I moved onto college. In the past 3 years, I’ve gotten the opportunity to reconnect with photography, and it’s been such a pleasure and a joy to be able to express my creativity in that way.

How do you overcome creative blocks?
I overcome creative blocks by surrounding myself with art from many different mediums. I go to museums or free galleries, I flip through fashion or interior design magazines. I’ve always found interior design especially inspiring; I love the way that different colours and textures create specific moods in whatever space you put them in. I think translating the mood of a space into conceptual photography is a really fun way of approaching the creative process in a unique way.

Doing different kinds of art is also helpful in overcoming creative blocks. I enjoy painting and collaging. If I feel like I am not making any progress when it comes to my photography, I put it down for a short amount of time and let it breathe without any pressure. Then I usually paint or write; I let myself express my creativity in a pressure-free environment with no expectations. I find this always helps me get back to creating with intention and focus.

What is the first step you take in making an idea into an image?
Surprisingly enough, my first step is to write out my idea using extremely specific language, especially around the feeling I want my image to evoke. I like to define the colours, the mood, the tone of the image; I write out how I feel about the image and how I want others to feel when they are looking at it. I define what attitude I want any models I’m working with to embody during the photoshoot, how I envision the costumes, and poses that I see in my mind’s eye as being related to the mood of the photoshoot. The goal is to have an emotional ‘North Star’ to return to when I am researching other components of the image, even if it only makes sense to me.

What emotions or reactions do you hope viewers experience when they see your photographs?
I hope they feel joy and awe. I hope they see their own power reflected in the photographs. I hope they feel inspired to think outside the box, or be bold and unapologetic. My photographs are a celebration of the unique and the ‘out there’, so I hope people feel compelled to push themselves to the limit of their comfort zones.

Can you elaborate on the significance or symbolism of the chosen title for your work?
It’s a play on words with ‘serve’: in tennis, the serve is the first shot to start a point. But ‘she’s serving cunt’ or ‘serving face’ is also an expression that originates from Black drag and ballroom culture, meaning to display confidence, boldness, and something outside of the ordinary, especially related to looks and/or outfits. The working title I used to guide the elaboration of this photoshoot was Cunty Tennis Martini, inspired by the idea of queering fashion and sport into a third, separate thing. My Serve speaks to the confidence the models embody in their poses and looks in the tennis environment. In other words: they served looks.

STAGED runs at Six Foot Gallery until 24th February 2026. Connect with Gabrielle on Instagram.