Carl Gabriel visited with our sophomores in Design 252 in late January. 

Based in London, Carl is well known as one of the premiere Carnival 

artist and designers working in wire. Carl was visiting Columbus as a 

part of the Midnight Robber’s Exhibition, which recently opened at 

the new Urban Arts Space downtown. The exhibition, the first of its 

kind, explores London’s carnival, the most spectacular street 

performance in Europe.

Carl visited with students in Design 252 and demonstrated his process 

and approach to building 3 dimensional Masquerade costumes. His 

technique dovetailed nicely with our students’ current project of 

designing culturally oriented masks using four different media… one 

of which was wire.

Carl worked as a sheet metal worker, and then trained as a 

photographer. He is now a full-time carnival artist, specializing in 

wire-formed sculptures that are presented not only in Carnivals but 

also in galleries and museums. Carl was commissioned by OSU to design 

and build a wire frame sculpture, which is now a part of the 

permanent university library collection.