The daughter of Venezuelan boat captains intimately aware of the grandeur and aesthetic excellence contained within the bordering Caribbean waters, for Michelle Brener of nauticallyfocused art gallery Ciaboga Studio, the ocean and its inhabitants are an unending inspiration for her shockingly simple prints. Now counting some of our world’s most impressive hotels as clients and sure to continue expanding both at home and abroad, Brener finds her choice of epithet well reflective of the part she hopes to play in the wider arts industry. “‘Pretty often I get asked what Ciaboga means,” she says. “It’s actually a navigation term in Spanish, one I would regularly hear from my father when docking the boat in Venezuela. It means to turn the ship around on its axis by having the propellers move in opposite directions. I decided to name my company Ciaboga because of its marine association, but also as a metaphor for turning things around for the better;” CiabogaStudio.com.
