Gabo was born in Russia under the name of Naum Pevsner, and was the younger brother of the sculptor Antoine Pevsner. He began his professional education at Munich University (1910) in medicine, changing to engineering, and after meeting Kandinsky, joined his brother in Paris. He began making constructions in 1915, returning to Moscow until 1922 when began publishing essays on Constructivism. In Berlin he associated with the de Stijl group and the Bauhaus as well as designing for Diaghilev's ballet and becoming a member of Abstraction-Creation. He first visited England in 1935.

He married Miriam Israels, a niece of the Hague School painter Jozef Israels, and the couple lived in London. They moved to Carbis Bay near St Ives in September of 1939 to be near Barbara HEPWORTH and Ben NICHOLSON, after working on the Circle magazine with Ben previously in London. The best resume of Gabo's life in Cornwall is offered by Michael BIRD in St Ives Artists.

Gabo moved to the USA in 1946, and became a US citizen in 1952. He died in the USA.