Conny Gabora’s life is like a rollercoaster ride.
Successes and breaks in his life have shaped his entire life.
Born in 1958 in the former GDR, the painter grew up in a middle-class Christian environment – the artist’s parents owned a private bakery and confectionery, which was rather unusual in the GDR.
His mother encouraged her son’s artistic talent at an early age.
After graduating from high school in Buttstädt, Thuringia, he had his first conflicts with the socialist state.
In military service as an armored personnel carrier driver, Gabora was demoted for persistent criticism of the system.
He is denied the opportunity to study art.
From 1977 until the fall of communism, he became a survival artist.
His stations: Dishwasher, restaurant manager and master until he became the owner of his own business.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, he was finally able to live out his creativity and began studying at the renowned Bauhaus University in Weimar, specializing in painting.

He is particularly interested in painters persecuted by the Nazi regime and so-called “degenerate art”.
A BUCHENWALD CYCLE with twelve paintings is created.
These include the works in acrylic on canvas DAS LABYRINTH and ANKLAGE IN WEIß.

The recognition, success and international breakthrough came in 2005.
The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem includes his Buchenwald cycle in its international archive of Holocaust art.

Another of many awards followed in 2007: The Federal Association of Thuringia for Painting honored the contemporary artist with first place.
Two years later, Gabora opened his first studio and painting school in Bobbin on the island of Rügen, and since 2015 he has been running a gallery with an adjoining artists’ café in Wiek on the harbor.
The artist lives on the Baltic Sea island in a circus wagon.

In 2019, Conny Gabora began studying painting at the Kolbermoor Art Academy under Professor Markus Lüpertz and successfully completed the master class in 2022.

The artist draws the inspiration for his current art from his own busy life.
Conny Gabora wants to arouse emotions, his pictures send clear messages.
According to his credo, he postulates: “Living art – every day, that’s the task.”
Poetry, philosophy, music and dance have a decisive influence on his work.

His works can be seen as mental snapshots.
Snapshots of thoughts, so-called MindSnaps, which unashamedly reveal human interaction, longings and experiences – and in doing so create a world of their own that seems familiar and strange at the same time.

The result is Gabora’s World 2.0 – “The Pling, pling, Superding World.”