“My quest is to create a vibrant wonderland where characters champion their quirks and evolve into the heroes of their own stories in a world filled with animation, street art, comics, music, and paintings.” – Gabi Almeida
Gabi Almeida is an artist, animator, character designer, storyteller, songwriter, and the creator of Mini Gabi World—a wonderland of characters brought to life through animation, street art, music, and comics.
Gabi Almeida’s artistic journey is a testament to her boundless creativity and passion for crafting immersive worlds where imagination knows no bounds. With a background spanning animation, character design, illustration, music production, and video editing, Gabi’s work is a vibrant infusion of influences from graffiti, street art, anime, comics, and circus elements, which continue to shape her artistic vision.
Her creations encompass a diverse range of mediums, including animation, character design, illustration, music production, and video editing.
Gabi’s artistic pursuits have taken her across various prestigious venues as a session musician, including the Royal Albert Hall, BBC, Top of the Pops, and Jools Holland, among others. Her solo music productions have reached the top UK charts, and her music videos have been featured on channels such as MTV.
In the realm of visual art, Gabi’s creations have graced prominent spaces, including the vibrant wall displays at W1 Curate, London, and the esteemed Turner Contemporary, where one of her works was featured as part of the Electric Medway Photogrammetry Hope Project exhibition. Additionally, her artworks have been showcased in various exhibitions and projects, and she has collaborated on illustrations for TEDx Covent Garden UK.
In recent years, Gabi has been instrumental in the creation and expansion of Mini Gabi World, a whimsical wonderland where reality and fiction intertwine to inspire. Stemming from her recovery journey after a 2014 head injury that prevented her from touring, Gabi created Mini Gabi to front the band during her recovery. Since then, Mini Gabi World has blossomed into a vibrant universe of characters brought to life through animation, storytelling, comics, street art, music, and paintings.
This expansion beyond paintings and illustrations has seen Mini Gabi World embrace immersive experiences, live visuals, and captivating wall projections. She has also ventured into the world of NFTs, offering collectors digital representations of her art. Additionally, Gabi operates an online store and a physical shop, nestled within another shop, offering paintings, illustrations, and merchandise.
Gabi’s passion for mixing traditional and digital mediums underscores her commitment to innovation and storytelling. Through her work, she invites audiences to immerse themselves in the enchanting universe she has created.
Presentation: Legacy in Character Art During Times of Recovery
In this presentation, Gabi Almeida delves into the profound intersection of art, legacy, and personal resilience in the face of adversity. Drawing from her own experience of recovery from a brain injury, Gabi explores how creativity became a catalyst for healing and self-discovery. The presentation highlights Gabi’s journey of crafting Mini Gabi World as a symbol of resilience and a testament to the transformative power of art.
Gabi shares insights into the creative process behind Mini Gabi World, emphasizing how the project evolved from a personal endeavor into a platform for storytelling and artistic expression. Life took an unexpected turn for Gabi in 2014 when a head injury halted her music tours. During her recovery, she had the idea of creating a character to front the band and go on tour on her behalf, giving birth to her first character, Mini Gabi. As Gabi navigated the challenges of recovery, the character’s voice became a guiding force, offering comfort and companionship during moments of vulnerability.
This character not only became the face of her band but also served as a unique front character, bridging the gap between performance and artistry, and ultimately leading to the creation of Mini Gabi World – a sanctuary for misfits and outsiders.
From pencil-drawing characters to full music animations, to the colorful universe of Mini Gabi World, Gabi’s path has been one of resilience, creativity, and endless exploration. Her journey spans street art, animation, music, and comics. Each piece is a chapter of this ever-evolving story, where art and life’s narratives intertwine, inviting others to be the hero of their own quirky adventure. Despite her head injury, or perhaps because of it, Gabi has learned to embrace the unexpected, turning obstacles into art.
Through personal anecdotes and artistic insights, Gabi’s talk offers a compelling narrative of overcoming adversity and finding purpose through art.