About

Gaby was born in March 1946 in Petah Tikva (Israel) to a German Jewish family immersed in music, art, and literature. Her childhood was spent in a vibrant small town characterized by close-knit relationships among its residents, including both secular and religious Jews from various parts of the world. She was raised amidst fields and orchards where she was free to explore nature and play with friends.
As a child, she already took painting classes in her school in Petah Tikva.

After high school she studied teaching at the “Beit Berl” college and served in the army as a soldier-teacher in a kibbutz. Later, she graduated in school management and couple parenting from the “Oranim” College, a department of the Haifa University.

While in Germany for her husband’s work, she launched educational projects, including one for diplomats’ children hesitant to return to Israel, and another called “Mifgashim”—a youth exchange program connecting German teens with Israeli Jewish and Arab peers who live in nearby villages without previous contac

During her stay in Germany, she learned painting on small wooden and metal objects such as milk cans and trays, utilising a local technique called “Bauermalerei” https://www.artbluemli.com/alpine. Soon, she moved on to paint on porcelain and the local teachers recommended that she try also watercolours and oil on canvases.
She spent about five years studying these technics with Margarete Schatz in Bonn who was recognised locally for her work as a realist painter specialising in figurative subjects representing nature and the people surrounding us in their habitat. During this time, Gaby created many of her earlier works, some together with others in a large mural project in Bonn.
During this period, she also studied painting for two years with Gabriele Schuller, a well-known painter in Germany who participated in many exhibitions and published several books. They worked together mainly during -Gaby’s visit to the Black Forest region of Germany.
Throughout her stay in Germany, she participated in several group exhibitions in Bonn, Koblenz, Remagen, and other nearby locations.

Since returning to Israel in 2009, she took numerous painting courses. In 2015, she was accepted to the Art and Painting Department of the Petach-Tikva Institute of Visual Arts (https://www.petachtikvamuseum.com/en/) under Dr. Anton Biderman. https://www.facebook.com/antonbid/
In 2016, she became a member of the Petah Tikva Artists Association. Since 2016, she also followed art studies with David Ivgi and, more recently, with Dr. Gillit Ivgi www.facebook.com/drgilitivgi/
During the summers of 2019 and 2020, she attended biweekly painting workshops on the beach of Cancale in Brittany (France) led by the artist Gerhard Ruhland, focusing on the transition from sketches to paintings (www.artistravel.eu).
She is currently retired, still working as a couple therapist, volunteers primarily in the educational field and continues painting in the Petach-Tikva Museum under the guidance of Dr. Anton Biderman

At the beginning of her painting journey, she mainly dealt with the nature and the universe around her. She quickly moved on to painting figures that express types that emerge from her fantasy, fairy tales, landscapes, and people surrounding her etc. Her earlier paintings emphasize humour, marital life, and the thoughts of the self-absorbed person.
Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has transitioned from creating figurative works to focusing on abstract art, resulting in the completion of over 100 such paintings

Most of her artwork is painted on high-quality art-paper (240g/sq.), canvas type boards, and/or large canvases up to 70 x 100 cm.
Since 2020, she works with mixed materials like soil, glue, plaster, sometimes even barbed wire and broken glass, when it suits the planned painting, in short whatever she can find nearby and during her wandering sprees.
Most painting are done with oil and /or acrylic paint. Lately materials like gouache and/or shaving cream have also been used. For the shaving cream technic, small sizes A4 and below and used.

Many of her recent paintings depict the challenging circumstances of her time, the situation in Ukraine, differences among groups in Israeli society, perspectives from both liberals and conservatives, religious and secular individuals, the current conflict involving Israel, the Palestinians, and neighbouring Arab countries and her hopes and uncertainties for the future

Between 2017-2019, she participated in several group exhibitions with other artists in Petach-Tikva, and other places in the Tel-Aviv area.
In April 2025, she met the well-known Israeli curator Doron Polak (https://www.doronpolak.com/), who offered her the opportunity of a first solo exhibition in the Tel Aviv-Yaffo “Askila” Gallery. A further group exhibition followed in Berlin (a first for her outside Israel) followed by a third group exhibition in Prague starting September 2025 as part of 2 further exhibitions in New York and Tel-Aviv within the ”Mini-Artura-3” concept organized by the Ben-Ami Gallery Tel-Aviv (www.benamigallery.com) with as curator Doron Polak.
She continues to pursue her painting in the Petach-Tikva Museum and during her travels abroad where she also learns new techniques like painting with shaving foam from the well-known Berlin artist Almyra Weigel (https://almyraweigel.de/)

In his closing words for Gaby’s Askila solo exhibition, Curator Doron Polak, wrote: “The interactions with Gaby Knoll’s landscape do penetrate heart and soul, but these strong paintings also have the virtue to connect to the place, the soil and the present.
There is a certain connection and perhaps some sort of undercover dialogue with the work of the German artist Anselm Kieper, who is combining in his monumental works, branches, soil and collage of fabrics. Of his work is said that “they are always haunted by ghosts from the ruins of history”.
Last update: 3.9.2025 Compiled by Alfred Knoll