Marisabel Gonzalez.
Marisabel Gonzalez (b.1973, Caracas, Venezuela) is a Sydney-based contemporary artist whose work explores the relationship between landscape and body.
Drawing on her background as a physician and sonographer, her work stems from a continual interest in what lies beneath the surface. Blurring the line between body and landscape, she presents both as living archives of experience: layered and ever-changing.
Colour plays a central role in her practice, serving as atmosphere, emotion, and a form of non-verbal language. Through stitching, erasure, collage, and material intervention, Gonzalez creates paintings and installations that preserve traces of time, pressure, memory and change, turning each surface into a space where the personal and the universal can intersect.
Gonzalez’s work encourages slow viewing and reflection. Her installations are imbued with strong conceptual ideas, and her paintings provide spaces of connection between the personal and the collective, the scientific and the poetic, the visible and the unseen.
Marisabel has presented solo exhibitions at Lane Cove Art Gallery (2025), Hake House in Sydney (2024 and 2023), Curl Curl Creative Space in Sydney (2020), and Arianne Paffrath in Düsseldorf (2017). Her work has been included in group exhibitions at the Parliament House of NSW and the Manly Art Gallery and Museum in Sydney (2019), as well as at ASD in Den Haag (2017), among others.
Her recent recognition includes finalist selections for the Paddington Art Prize (2021), the Northern Beaches Environmental Art Prize (2024 and 2025), and the St. Columba’s Art Prize (2025 and 2026). She won the Collabor8 Women’s Art Prize (2023) and was selected as a semi-finalist for the Luca Biennale Cartasia in Italy (2024). Her work is held in private collections worldwide, including Barclays Private Bank in Sydney, the Stiftung Kleine Kunstdialog West/Ost in Düsseldorf, and the Axicorp Corporate Collections in Singapore and London.
2024 - Chasing Horizons
PREVIOUS SOLO EXHIBITION 2024
SHOW NOTES
Chasing Horizons captures the constant tension between aspiration and acceptance, as Marisabel Gonzalez navigates the fine line between fate and desire. Spanning a transformative year, this body of work was conceived amid high hopes and the daring pursuit of the seemingly ungraspable. Through immersive textures and layered surfaces, the paintings embody the alchemical process of reaching for impossible goals. They reflect both the ambition that drives these pursuits and the subtle metamorphosis that unfolds when desires remain out of reach.
A turning point is inevitable—a moment of self-confrontation that redefines the artist’s identity and alignment with her inner self. Whether dreams are fulfilled or fall short, this inescapable transformation speaks to a deeper reconciliation between intention and outcome, leaving behind traces of growth and resilience.
Embracing chance, Gonzalez’s process mirrors the unpredictable nature of life itself, casting coincidence as an unforgiving sea for a paper boat’s journey. Each work bristles with the energy of dreams, from bold assertions of the year’s start to the reflective sensitivity of its close. The works trace the cyclical rhythms of life, revealing how each pursuit—whether it soars or falls short—adds depth and resilience. In reaching for lofty goals, there is a quiet wisdom gained, an understanding that growth often lies not in achievement but in the journey itself. Each piece becomes a testament to the beauty of striving, even when horizons remain just out of reach. Chasing Horizons challenges you to find meaning in both the climb and the inevitable moments of pause, surrender, and self-discovery along the way.
Words by Venn Miles
